Our Erin Mills Director, Wayne Lam, has a passion for education and helping students. Wayne cares for students and wants to see them succeed and reach their full potential. Discover more about the benefits of enrolling your child at the Erin Mills tutoring centre and how helping students is Wayne’s reward.

Interview was conducted verbally, so transcript reflects natural, conversational English with conscious light editing versus what might appear in a formal, written piece.

Wayne: My name is Wayne. I am the owner of the Academy for Mathematics & English at the Erin Mills location, in Mississauga. We’re located at the intersection of the Erin Mills Parkway and Erin Centre Blvd., which is just right across from the Erin Mills Town Centre.

Wayne: I was a tutor at the Academy when I was still in school – before I graduated from university. And, afterwards, I went into the financial field for about two years. Then, I found myself realizing that what I really love is education: it is what I believe in and have the most passion for. This prompted me to think, “Why not run one of the Academy locations, the kind of business where I can help people, help students?” Because bringing students to their full potential really is a rewarding thing for me.

Wayne: Our main line of services would be after school tutoring for Grade 1 to Grade 12 in Math, English and Sciences. That also includes Physics, Chemistry, Bio and Advanced Functions, Calculus and Data Management. We also have students coming in for help preparing for various entry tests for college or for military services as well.

Wayne: I’ve been living in this area of Mississauga since I was in university and that goes back around 10 years now. I’m quite familiar with this area, with the community. And I found a lot of the families, a lot of the parents, they are highly educated and I think we share the same idea as we believe in education and we all want the children to be reaching their full potential.

Wayne: I have lots of students coming from John Fraser, Gonzaga, Stephen Lewis and also Thomas Street Middle School.

Wayne: The Mastery Program and also the Exam Preparation programs.

Wayne: What makes your tutoring centre different from other tutoring centres providing a similar service?

Wayne: I would say we are not only a business but we also care about students academically. We want our students to be successful and we care about their futures. So, when a student comes in, we don’t only look at their grades, we want to see how we can help them out in the next 5 years, 10 years. We would like to give them advice and counsel: we just want our students to be successful in everything they’re going to be involved in in the future – we want them to reach their full potential.

Wayne: There are really a lot of stories since I have started my Academy. I think out of so many, one recent student who stands out started coming to us in April a couple of years ago and she was getting 60% in Calculus, and it was about halfway through the course and it was right before her mid-term examination. Things were very high stakes for her, based on her university admission goals. And after just a short period of tutoring, we were able to help her rise to 80%, placing her in the top tier of her class for this very challenging course. And given that she had done well on some of the other courses as well, she got admitted to university into a business management program, which was her goal. This really made us proud and happy. Our intervention at the right time changed her future – helped her realize her goal. And she still comes by occasionally just to chat with us about whatever she’s doing in her life and also about her university life and things like that.