{"id":37271,"date":"2022-03-14T13:12:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T17:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=37271"},"modified":"2022-03-14T13:12:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T17:12:30","slug":"chen-has-saratoga-based-writing-center-on-a-trajectory-to-offer-instruction-globally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2022\/03\/chen-has-saratoga-based-writing-center-on-a-trajectory-to-offer-instruction-globally\/","title":{"rendered":"Chen Has Saratoga-Based Writing Center On A Trajectory To Offer Instruction Globally"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Jane Chen launched her business Eyre Writing Center in January 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Susan Elise Campbell<\/p>\n

Jane Chen left Wall Street to start a writing center for youth in a career leap that surprised her peers in the world of investment banking. But helping children read and write is something Chen has been devoted to since she was 16 years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her business, Eyre Writing Center, was launched January 2020 from Saratoga CoWorks and Chen has already helped 900 middle school children \u201ctake the mystery out of writing well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of my time in asset management on Wall Street I was writing a curriculum for a new writing center for the new age,\u201d said Chen, whose parents named her after The literary character, Jane Eyre. \u201cMy task was to break down the foundations of writing and make it a science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center would focus on middle school students because \u201cwe have great elementary schools and, depending on the district, great high schools,\u201d she said. \u201cBut middle schools are underperforming so it is difficult for students to jump from eighth to ninth grade. When I saw what books were on the recommended summer reading list for seventy or eighth grade, I realized I had these titles on my reading list in fifth grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she doesn\u2019t know exactly what is behind the drop in basic skills, it was \u201caggravated by COVID,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t look at data to see where the problems may lie, but I know anecdotally that there has been a deterioration in the quality of writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Chen edited college essays on the side she was \u201clearning what the students weren\u2019t learning. Switching tenses, poor sentence structure and punctuation are fundamentals that should have been addressed 10 years earlier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Chen said she \u201cpersonally had an interesting education.\u201d She was a youngster in the New York City school system who was fortunate to get a scholarship to Trinity School, a prominent prep school, where \u201cthe discrepancies became more vivid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later she would attend Harvard University for her major in history, minor in economics, and a calling for \u201ceducational empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 10 later when she presented a business plan to fellow Ivy Leaguers on Wall Street, they told her, \u201cThis plan is untenable.\u201d But Chen went forward. Her market would be children and their parents in lower income communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was accustomed to financial stability and starting a business is always challenging,\u201d she said. Chen wanted to hire the best instructors and graders, \u201cand that is a high fixed cost,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to have a school with a price tag that\u2019s affordable,\u201d she said. \u201cHow was I going to scale that to make a profit?\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen felt there were enough people like her devoted to the mission of helping youth read and write with more clarity who would \u201cgive their time at a lower hourly rate than the private schools, whose students came from wealthy families, were paying them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hired two part-time professionals to be instructors, editors and graders alongside Chen. Today the staff of three are full time. One is in Cambridge, Mass., focusing on marketing. A recent graduate of University of Albany\u2019s master\u2019s program is assigned with the administrative tasks, editing and graphics. As of this year, Chen is the sole instructor of all the classes.<\/p>\n

In-person classes began from the workspace co-op on Broadway in January 2020, but were shuttered when the pandemic hit. Two years later Chen is making another far-reaching change in the business model. She is recording 100 hours of on-demand videos and offering them in addition to live classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are testing out the video model with the students and have found that may preferred videos over live instruction,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n

That decision led to a four-tiered pricing system for enrollment. The flex plan offers only videos. The live plan is videos with lectures. The edit plan is videos, no live lectures, and editing of writing assignments. The all-in plan offers the full spectrum of instruction and editing.<\/p>\n

All students have a live option, which can be book club or a community event. Each course level, of which there are five, progressively teaches the fundamentals of how to read, write sentences, and write paragraphs. A writing project is done over the 12-week semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writing project will be either creative or analytical,\u201d said Chen. \u201cWe teach every type of writing except business writing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Papers are then published in EWJ, the EWC Journal, found online at ewcjournal.com.<\/p>\n

New students do not have to decide which course level is best for them. Chen developed a 45-minute placement module and enrolls the student in the correct level based on their answers. Then it is up to the student and parents to select live and video options based on their preferences and learning style.<\/p>\n

Chen said she would like to \u201cfind a way to work with after school programs or other partnerships\u201d and has a pilot program running now that is exclusively on-demand videos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe students like this program, but it\u2019s success is purely qualitative,\u201d she said. \u201cI am bringing a person on board to talk to all the families and quantify our results.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there she hopes to build out software on writing instruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mission is to be a high quality writing resource and make it affordable for families across the community, the nation, and even the world,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n

Eyre Writing Center has opened EWC Book Club to the public. It meets twice a month on Zoom and the reading list and registration form are on the website. More student essays and a blog that includes past book club discussions are also accessible.<\/p>\n

Visit www.eyrewritingcenter.com for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Susan Elise Campbell Jane Chen left Wall Street to start a writing center for youth in a career leap that surprised her peers in the world of investment banking. But helping children read and write is something Chen has been devoted to since she was 16 years old.\u00a0 Her business, Eyre Writing Center, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":37272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-women-in-business"],"yoast_head":"\r\nChen Has Saratoga-Based Writing Center On A Trajectory To Offer Instruction Globally - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2022\/03\/chen-has-saratoga-based-writing-center-on-a-trajectory-to-offer-instruction-globally\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chen Has Saratoga-Based Writing Center On A Trajectory To Offer Instruction Globally - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Susan Elise Campbell Jane Chen left Wall Street to start a writing center for youth in a career leap that surprised her peers in the world of investment banking. 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