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New After-School Learning Center Opens in Forest Hills

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | February 21, 2017 4:13pm
 A new location of JEI Learning Centers will open next week at 112-28 Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills.
A new location of JEI Learning Centers will open next week at 112-28 Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills.
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DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — A new after-school program seeking to help children struggling with math, English, reading and writing will launch next week in Forest Hills, the owner said.

JEI Learning Centers is opening its newest branch at 112-28 Queens Blvd., near 76th Avenue, replacing Emilio’s Ski Shop which closed last year.

“We want to help kids,” said Patricia Zhou, the center’s director. “There are so many schools in Forest Hills, and people move to the neighborhood because of its schools, but there are not too many learning centers.”

Zhou, a Forest Hills resident herself, said she decided to open the center after her 8-year-old son, who attends P.S. 303, began to struggle at school and got help at a JEI center in Bayside.

The Forest Hills location will offer a variety of programs, including math, English, reading and writing as well as a creative thinking program called “brain safari," which also seeks to enhance analytical skills, she said.

Founded in 1977 in South Korea, JEI Learning Centers offer a self-paced, individualized program designed for children from pre-K to 9th grade and aligned with Common Core State Standards, Zhou said.

Groups consist of a maximum of five students per teacher, and each kid has their own set of books based on their individual needs which are determined after they take a diagnostic test, Zhou said. 

“Kids are not competing with each other,” Zhou said. “They learn at their own pace.”

The company has dozens of locations throughout the U.S. There are at least six other sites in New York City, including in Rego Park and Flushing, according to the company's website.

Initially, Zhou said, the Forest Hills center will be opened three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday), but it may expand its hours in the future, depending on demand.

The Forest Hills branch of JEI Learning Centers is located at 112-28 Queens Blvd. Monthly tuition is $150 per subject (includes one 60-minute class per week). For more information call 718 268 2890.