Tutoring's a 'career of love' for Pensacola educator. Others are helping spread the love

A business built around uplifting Pensacola students is getting help to do even more good.

Bantucola, the Northwest Florida Black business directory website, has awarded its capacity building grant of $1,500 to Kenita Mitchell of Harmonic Learning Education and Training.

Harmonic Learning Education and Training is a holistic education center built on the idea of providing long-term, individualized academic assistance to K-12 students of all ages and abilities. The organization provides a three-step approach of love, fun and learning to improve academic performance and build confidence for all students.

For Mitchell, teaching may not pay a lot, but it is a "career of love."

"It's a service industry and so those of us that's in it, we enjoy in some capacity servicing you, and for me what keeps me going is exactly that," Mitchell said. "Getting a kid to come in, the light bulb completely off — they may hate school, they may hate learning — but through that love, that fun, but still teaching them the learning part, that little light bulb goes off like 'Ding!' That's what keeps me going."

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The small business owner was one of 40 applicants who applied for the grant given to a small Black-owned business in Northwest Florida. Applicants had to write in no more than 500 words how they would use this injection of capital in their business to expand. The money was provided to Bantucola by anonymous donors who wanted to help the betterment of the Black business community.

Chris Hendricks, founder of Bantucola, said judges were very impressed by Mitchell's proposal. Mitchell said she planned to use the funding for software and security upgrades for the business.

"She did a really good job of pitching how she would take that $1,500 as opposed to someone who kind of left it wide open," Hendricks said.

Harmonic Learning ended up receiving four of the five first-place votes to win the grant.

How Harmonic Learning got started

Harmonic Learning Education and Training was founded by Mitchell after she discovered her love for teaching in eighth grade.

She was a babysitter in East Hill when the neighborhood parents realized her academic talent and asked her to tutor their kids. She took her tutoring services to high school when she was a student at Booker T. Washington High School and started a tutoring service at the now closed Spencer Bibbs Elementary School.

When she graduated college and came back to the community, she still saw a need to help out students who needed additional support. Since some schools have large classroom sizes, it can be difficult for teachers to meet the needs of every student.

Mitchell decided to continue her tutoring services under the name of Harmonic Learning in 2016 and established the LLC in 2020.

Harmonic Learning has seven tutors, including Mitchell, who teach a variety of subjects. They incorporate individualized music into their sessions based on the needs of their students. The tutors also employ a hands-on approach to lessons where students are moving around and engaged as they are learning.

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Mitchell said she looks at her business as a "community business" and strives to make her services affordable for all families. She said she was grateful for the grant as it would help fund a few projects to help her business grow.

Overall, Mitchell feels tutoring services help relieve the stress on parents, teachers and schools.

"A child does not have to be struggling in order for parents to seek educational support," Mitchell said. "Your child does not have to fail. Believe it or not, a lot of children that are academically successful, they are academically successful because they do have educational support outside of the classroom. Don't wait until your child is failing to seek help at the end of the day."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Harmonic Learning Education and Training wins capacity building grant