The Madison Chamber of Commerce Facebook post linking to the story about the award.
Sarah Davis of Madison recently won a Madison Chamber of Commerce Women of Excellence Award for her role in efforts to provide underserved youth with access to better educational opportunities through a tutoring venture called Flyte Scholastics.
Bulldog Tutors and its founder Mike Newcomer get credit for their inspirational role in Davis’ efforts, as well as prominent mentions in a Shore Publishing story about the award, published on the website zip06.com.
The story explains that the connection between Newcomer and Davis began when her son, Bobby, was a junior at Hopkins School in New Haven and the family was looking for SAT prep services—a key area of expertise for Bulldog Tutors.
In the process of connecting with Bulldog and Newcomer, Davis realized test prep tutoring was essentially unavailable for families that couldn’t afford it, the story explains.
Bulldog Tutors founder Mike Newcomer.
In 2013, Flyte was founded by Bobby Davis and Newcomer with the goal of providing free, high-quality, SAT/ACT and subject tutoring to students in New Haven, the Flyte website explains.
Flyte partnered with its first school, the nationally-acclaimed Common Ground charter school, in 2014, launching the tutoring program. The volunteer tutors were recruited from Yale, in similar fashion to the way in which the for-profit Bulldog employs top Yale students as tutors.
“I used to pick them up at Yale and drive them,” Sarah Davis said in the Shore Publishing story. “We’d go to Bruegger’s Bagels, get some bagels, drive them over to Common Ground, and students would come in for SAT prep. And I have to say the tutors were terrific. I was so lucky to have all the tutors at Flyte.”
In 2015, Flyte added a middle school to its tutoring program, St. Martin de Porres Academy in New Haven, as well as launching a program of tutor appreciation dinners, also known as Flyte Nights. A third school, Highville Charter, was added to the roster in 2016.
The Shore Publishing story notes that one of the Flyte tutors, Emma Sonenson, played a key role in connecting with St. Martin de Porres.
According to the story, Flyte Scholastics is now listed as one of Yale’s student service groups for undergraduates to join. Also see the Flyte website to inquire about volunteer tutoring opportunities.
Newcomer is a Flyte board member, as are Sonenson, Sarah Davis’ husband, Bob, Bobby Davis, and his sister, Abigail.
The Madison Chamber presented Davis with the Women of Excellence Award in October. Read the full story on the zip06.com website.
About Bulldog Tutors
With offices in New Haven and Guilford, Bulldog Tutors provides the highest quality private tutoring, test prep, and college admissions counseling in Connecticut. Bulldog’s Ivy League-educated tutors have achieved top scores on every exam that they teach and take a personalized approach to instruction that targets students’ weaknesses and helps them succeed on admissions tests and in subjects where they may have been under-served by traditional educational settings.
The New Haven office is located at 142 Temple Street, 3rd Floor. See the website at bulldogtutors.com.
The Guilford office, which may be reached at (203) 423-0592, is located at 2257 Boston Post Road, Suite B.