UWS Tutors
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scott spizer., founder and lead tutor, origins tutoring
If you are looking for an UWS tutor, I hope that you will consider working with me, Scott Spizer, or one of my tutors at Origins Tutoring, located on the Upper West Side (UWS) of Manhattan.
We provide tutoring and test prep services to families in NYC, focusing on test prep for middle and high school admissions for selective public and private schools in NYC, and SAT and ACT prep for college admissions.
We not only prepare our students for admissions tests, but support them in developing the skills to think, learn and problem solve on their own.
Succeeding on a test or getting into a desired school is not the only finish line. Those achievements are stepping stones to becoming a creative, powerful learner and a self-assured young person.
To understand more about Origins Tutoring, I encourage you to read our story:
"My name is Scott Spizer and I am the co-founder and CEO of Origins Tutoring, located on the Upper West Side (UWS).
I grew up in Manhattan and attended Hunter College Elementary School and Dalton High School. From there, I went on to Yale University, where I played on the baseball and football teams and graduated with a degree in political science. After graduating, I spent the next decade on two distinct career paths – television journalism, at ABC News, and the restaurant industry, including being an original partner in Carmine’s, on the upper west side of Manhattan. Neither of these worlds ever fully fit me; they never felt like my “destiny”, or the way I was supposed to leave my mark. I was told several times I was “too nice” for the somewhat cutthroat industries I had chosen. Ultimately, I decided that it wasn’t me that needed changing, it was my vocation.
In 1995, I relocated to northern Virginia, where I spent two years in the Shenandoah Mountains building a cabin and writing children’s stories. After my years in the woods, the next step became clear: I would pursue my life-long interest in teaching. In high school, I had tutored younger students and been a counselor on weekends; in college, I worked with inner-city boys in the Yale/New Haven Big Brother program; throughout my adult life, I coached little-league baseball and volunteered as a math and English tutor. Working with young people was consistently “the other” thing I had done over the years; I realized that this “other” thing should be “the” thing.
Thankfully, my private tutoring practice grew quickly and thrived through word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations from schools and parents. As a Hunter and Dalton graduate, I had a first-hand understanding of the challenging academic and social worlds New York City students and their families faced. Over the next dozen years, I worked with hundreds of students from private and public schools in NYC and boarding schools in the surrounding area.
Origins was created by my wife and me in 2010. This is the company we want to be a part of; this is the company we want to do business with as parents. We believe our dedication to creating choices – that is, creating opportunities for others to enhance their skills and, thereby, increase the number and quality of choices they have in life – makes a difference in the lives of the coaches, students and families we work. We seek out dedicated and gifted coaches who can be positive role models. Our coaches need to have both the intellect and the empathy to provide the support a student needs. We, likewise, seek out families who are committed to helping their child develop skills that will serve them for life. We build long-term relationships both with our coaches and the families with whom Origins works.
My wife and I live on the UWS with our two daughters. My years in the woods live on – I spend weekends with my family in our “cabin dressed as a house” in Pawling, a small town on the southern tip of Dutchess County, where I work with students at Trinity-Pawling boarding school.
Please call me on 917.287.7927 if you are interested in talking further with me to discuss how an UWS tutor could help your child do her personal best.
