In 1999, Madeline Brandt's son Elliot was struggling in school. Even though he went to a great school and had a wonderful teacher, with so many students in his class, it was hard for him to get individualized attention. As a former elementary school teacher, Madeline spent many evenings helping her son with his homework and giving him the tools he needed to learn. It helped his grades improve tremendously, and that didn't go unnoticed: When another student in Elliot's class was struggling, his parents asked Madeline if she'd be able to help them, too. It was then that Madeline realized that she could use the skills she'd learned by tutoring others. She began taking on a few students from Elliot's school after the day ended, using a classroom at the school for a few hours to give smaller groups of students the help they needed. But the interest in her tutoring slowly grew bigger than one person could handle.
In 2002, while continuing her after-school tutoring program at Elliot's school, Madeline met Jerry Saunders, a retired college professor and grandparent of one of the students Madeline had been helping. After learning about her project and how overwhelming it was becoming for her, he offered his help. Originally, the two of them continued to work in a classroom after school, but as word got out about their services, it became impractical to meet there, so they decided to rent a space and open North Mountain Institute.
When North Mountain Institute officially opened its doors in March 2003, it was focused specifically on elementary-age students. However, as their older students moved on to middle school, their parents began asking whether they could stay and continue getting extra help. After some careful consideration, Madeline and Jerry decided to hire a few more former teachers, teachers-in-training, and tutors to help with middle school students and older students as well. From there, North Mountain Institute continued to grow, and today, we help students of all ages, from 5 to 95. For anyone who wants to learn, North Mountain Institute will always have its doors open to help.
We believe that every student is capable of achieving their learning goals, even if they are struggling in a traditional classroom environment. The truth is that some people need a more personalized approach to learning, whether that be in smaller groups or one on one. Our goal, since day one of the program, has always been to find out what each student needs to truly understand the material and use that information to help them thrive. Our team is trained to go above and beyond to create a learning system that works for each student. Everybody deserves to thrive in education: Sometimes, they just need a little help and the confidence to believe that they can.
Our values are the core of everything we do here at North Mountain Institute.
While they rarely teach anymore, focusing primarily on administrative duties, Madeline Brandt and Jerry Saunders are still the leaders of the institute, and they're always reachable by phone or email if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the program.
Madeline Brandt has a bachelor's degree in elementary education with a focus on students in third through fifth grade. Immediately after receiving her bachelor's, she went on to get her master's degree in education. She was an elementary school teacher for six years but left the school system to raise her children. However, the teaching spirit never left her, and she found her passion in tutoring students at her son's school, which evolved into starting North Mountain Institute.
Jerry Saunders is a retired college biology professor. Growing up, he'd struggled immensely in school and found that his teachers would seemingly write him off as not understanding the subject matter. So Jerry always assumed that he hated school. However, when he started to do science experiments on his own over the summer and started making trips to the library to read books about why the results were the way they were, he realized that he did love learning and he did understand the subject matter: He just needed to take a different approach to get there. That love of science and desire to prove that some people learn a little differently is what led him to decide to teach, and finding the right approaches to help other students has always been his favorite part of teaching.