MADE in Lake County is part of a paid partnership.
Welcome to MADE in Lake County! MADE introduces you to the people and stories behind local Lake County businesses. Today it is our pleasure to introduce you to Oscar Im. Oscar is the Owner of Mathnasium in Wauconda.
For many people math is not their favorite subject, I have struggled at times and have watched my kids struggle. Math is however one of the key life skills you need to learn in order to be a functional adult. Think about it, with the move to a very digital world you can get by with horrible spelling or handwriting. You can ask Google or Alexa just about any history question you may have. But math? You need a grasp of the basics to cook, to write checks, to pay bills. Adulthood becomes much harder when you don’t have the basics of math down.
Oscar Im of Mundelein is one of those individuals who not only loves math, but understand how the grasping the basics can really have an impact on improving a child’s life.
When I walked in to meet Oscar he appeared as one would expect a Math and Computer Science engineer to appear. However the more time I spent with him the more you really see his wit and humor. He also had a great rapport with my kids, even the one that was not thrilled to be there. Oscar wasn’t always a Mathnasium owner, in fact the Wauconda center just opened this past fall. Oscar started in IT and was a the Director of IT when he decided he wanted to be home more for his two daughters. After a short stint as a consultant Oscar became a stay-at-home dad to his two daughters.
As his daughters have grown, one is in college and one a senior at Carmel Catholic in Mundelein, he knew he wanted to go back to work. Oscar was looking for work that he would enjoy but that would also be part of a community and make an impact. After researching Mathnasium and meeting several different owners he knew this was the place for him.
As I talked with Oscar you could see his passion for helping people understand math as a life skill, beyond just getting through the classes at school. The Mathnasium approach focuses in numerical fluency. That is teaching an awareness of numbers and how they’re related so that you can understand how you get the answers to math problems. The whole center is developed around this with math figures and systems on the walls and kids engaging with the math from the moment they walk in. In fact there are no digital devices in the center. No iPads, calculators, etc. Analog clocks on the walls and ample supplies of pencils and paper are on hand to help children work through their problems.
While Oscar lives in Mundelein the center is located Wauconda, chosen partial for it’s strong community. Oscar is active in the chamber and really becoming a part of the Wauconda community. Mathnasium employs several instructors, keeping a ratio of 3 or 4 to 1. Several of the instructors are local high schoolers that are not only exceptional at math but have a great rapport with kids.
Next week we’ll get to learn a little bit more about Oscar as he fills in as guest editor in our newsletter and on Facebook. In the meantime he is offering $50 of the first month for Little Lake County Readers. Unlike other tutoring center Mathnasium is like a gym membership where you pay per month and can come in as many times as you want/need (recommended is at least 2 a week).
Mathnasium – Wauconda
475 W. Liberty Street, Wauconda, IL 60084 | (224) 993-0526
[email protected] | Facebook | Twitter
[spacer height=”20px”]
Disclosure: Mathnasium Wauconda, is our featured Business of the Month. This series is part of a paid promotion partnership with Little Lake County. All thoughts and opinions belong to the writer of the story. If you are interested in featuring your own locally-owned business in our series please contact the sales team.
Leave a Reply