Couple Opens State’s First Center

Miloni and Pranav Suthar have opened the Eye Level Learning Center of Lexington West, the first time the international learning center has been available in Kentucky.

For the 20-something couple – they have been married for five months – the Math and English learning center located in Elkhorn Shopping Center off Harrodsburg Road represents passion over profits.

Pranav, a Dunbar and UK graduate, is a pharmacist. Miloni, who has a degree in applied psychology from University of Illinois at Chicago, has a passion in childhood education.

While the couple are business partners, Miloni will be the director and one of the instructors. She realized that a learning center suited her interests after working at a Kumon center as a college student.

“An Eye Level learning center can focus on the individual child, not just the curriculum,” she said.

“I want to spend time with kids. Each child learns at a different pace, and I want to nurture that.

“We don’t think of this as a business. This is our passion.”

The goal is to support schools in the area by offering supplemental education.

Eye Level originated in Korea and has spread across the globe to beyond 1100 centers, with more than 250 of those in the U.S.

Eye Level focuses on individualized instruction, low student-instructor ratio, basic thinking and critical thinking math, writing skills and reading comprehension.

Eye Level encourages the student rather than the instructor to set the goals for success.

After students take a free diagnostic test, the center director and instructor help them set up individualized goals.

This helps students take charge of their learning.

“Students feel like, ‘I did this,’” Pranav said. “It’s their work, their challenges, their goals.”

The goal for students is mastery – not just of the curriculum but of essential skills.

In math sessions, the students use manipulatives such as colored wooden blocks, puzzle pieces and foam shapes that help children develop critical thinking skills and spatial sense, which are key building blocks to understanding math concepts.

This hands-on learning reinforces concepts by engaging more of the child’s senses.

The English program also embraces multiple senses, incorporating listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

“Education is the foundation to life,” Pranav said. “It’s how you understand yourself and the world.”

For Pranav and Miloni, the Eye Level Learning program seemed the best way to help children develop lifelong learning skills.

The franchise emphasizes patience, persistence and hard work.

The pair traveled to New Jersey, Dallas and Washington, D.C. to receive training in the program.

The Suthars have hired Greg Streable as an instructor. He is a graduate of the MSTC program at Dunbar and is studying to be a math teacher at Eastern Kentucky.

The center focuses on children from age 3 to high school.

Eye Level Learning is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3-7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Eye Level is available outside those times for orientations and diagnostic tests.

Each child comes for one hour per week per subject and there is no minimum number of sessions required, though most children will see results within six months.

Education fits with the couple’s heritage – both are of Indian descent. Teachers hold a special place in Indian culture.

“When I was a child in India I was influenced so much by my teachers,” Miloni said. “I want to have the same positive influence on children.”

Info: Eye Level Learning Center of Lexington West. (859) 333-6408 or visit www.eyelevellexingtonwest.com.