Thanks to you, [my son]  is really starting to like math!!! How cool is that!!  Thank you, Linda, for your patient and kind touch with him.  It is the winning formula for my sensitive boy/young man!  I love how engaged he is during his work with you.  Very cool!!

EB

I was very fortunate to have Linda Barnes as my son’s counselor. Speaking as a parent, I was impressed with Linda’s ability to work with my teenage son who was quite unhappy at the time, put him at ease and help him recognize his talents and skills that he himself could not see. As a former admissions counselor, I am impressed with her understanding of the process. Her organizational and counseling skills are top-notch. I would highly recommend her both personally and professionally!

Erika Nestor

Linda was wonderful with my son, Connor. She was patient, educated, and well versed on helping him prepare college applications and ultimately selecting his school of choice. I highly recommend her and plan to use her again for my daughter when her time comes.

Michell Langlais

Linda helped me target the right colleges after high school. She was very enthusiastic, patient, and knowledgable in her field. She also helped me with the process of sending invitations, and a letter to the United States embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo so my family could come in the US and attended my graduation ceremony. She has done the same for two of my siblings who are currently attending the University of Vermont. I highly recommend her because she is great at what she does.

Guillaume Meli

Our daughter attends the University of Vermont.  She had struggled throughout her K-12 education with ADHD; while she was extremely gifted intellectually, organizing a study schedule, preparing to meet deadlines for papers and remembering to turn in work when it was due caused her grades and self image to suffer.  She had a disastrous spring semester her freshman year, nearly losing her place at UVM.  We were SO lucky to find Linda Barnes and SupportEd.llc.  Her work with Amy has had so many positive effects.  She has a much better sense of the balance she needs to maintain between coursework and recreation.  She is learning to be her own advocate with professors who have been super when she’s able to work with them on minor  accommodations  to make up for her forgetfulness.  She is also learning how to be a good self-critic – she can now recognize when she has not clearly or fully expressed herself in her written work and make edits to fix that.  And, as a parent, I rest easier knowing that Amy has a trusted, caring advisor with whom she can share concern about budding crises in time for her to take corrective action and avoid failure.  Thanks, Linda, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with you and SupportEd.llc for Amy’s Junior and Senior years.

The Greaneys

My son has struggled in school with tests and testing anxiety; using a systematic approach in his work and solidifying math concepts.  For years I’ve been trying to convince his schools to give him individual help in his areas of weakness, but unless a child is diagnosed with an official learning disability there is very little help on offer.  The educational psychologist who tested my son recommended Linda Barnes when I contacted her for advice.  Linda has a calm, confident, competent approach; treats my son like an individual and tries to understand his natural working style.  She has helped him learn how to be more effective in how he approaches tests and school work.  My son’s grades and confidence are increasing and it has reduced the stress in our household as he now feels he has someone knowledgeable to turn to when he is having trouble in his school work and tests.

Stephanie Reiskin

My son had struggled with math for several years and as parents we found it harder and harder to understand the math and support his skills. After completing educational testing Linda was recommended to us for tutoring. We were switching schools and needed to get up to speed on the new school’s math curriculum.  Linda provided our son with the support he needed to build his skills and his confidence. He went from thinking of himself as someone who really struggled with math to being a much more confident learner who knows how to ask questions rather than being overwhelmed.  It was incredibly helpful to have Linda be in regular direct communication with his teacher to know what the class was working on and what our son needed to address to increase his mastery of the topic. She attended a school meeting with us and gave us weekly updates on how things were going. We are very grateful to Linda for being a part of the team and it helps to know we can reconnect with her if a tune-up s needed!

SL, Parent of an 8th grader

Linda Barnes has vast and varied experience working with a broad demographic of students with the goal to help students discover ways to enhance and promote skills to navigate their school experience. Skills such as organization, focus and the ability to discriminate have never been more important than they are today with the expanded access to information that students face. Unfortunately, there is a large percentage of students for whom these challenges are overwhelming. The work Linda does to teach and coach these necessary skills is invaluable and I am happy to recommend her.

Debbie Crow

“When I was unclear on how to best prepare myself for college, or even to accomplish the goals I had set for high school, Linda never just pointed me in the right direction. Instead, she took the time to lead me down the right path. Linda made it her personal mission to make sure I succeeded, and she’s one of only a few that had such a positive impact on my future.”

Ethan Bechtel, former student

While attending high school and looking ahead towards college, Linda Barnes was always willing to help with a friendly, uplifting personality that assured me of my choices and helped me to become who I am today. In just three years of undergraduate college, I’ve gained my BA and am now applying to Ph.D programs to become a history professor. That first step was with Linda Barnes.

Clayton Willets former student

As a father who has seen a change in his son’s life and direction, I feel it is important to share with others the positive impact Linda has had on my son. My son was always smart and a hard worker, but he had made some poor academic decisions with what could have been long term consequences. With Linda’s guidance, encouragement, frequent mentoring she has helped my son to redirect his life. Linda has the experience, the knowledge . . . but most importantly she has genuine passion to help kids find themselves and to find a pathway for success. She has opened doors of opportunity for my son. I will always be grateful for the guidance she has offered my son.

W.R. Parent

As a freshman in high school, my daughter, P, seemed to struggle with school work.   She enjoyed being at school with her friends, but it was difficult to focus in the classroom, to complete all of her homework on-time and to achieve the results she wanted on her assessments.  We started working with Linda in the beginning of P's freshman year.  Although we were hesitant to work over FaceTime, Linda was able to establish a great rapport with P, fairly quickly.  Linda understood the challenges and struggles that P faced in the classroom, as well as, those when attempting to complete homework assignments and projects.  P found that Linda was extremely helpful with organization, time management, reading comprehension strategies, and techniques for effective paper writing.  As the weeks ensued, P became more efficient and more effective.  She started to finish her work on time, sometimes ahead of time, and was prepared for her assessments.  As P's grades started to improve, she started to enjoy the learning process.  Her view of school changed and she started to enjoy and flourish in her classes.  Grades are important but more importantly , P embraced what she was learning and started to formulate her own opinions about the topics being discussed.  To say this was a turn around is an understatement.  P now has a positive view of learning, is expanding her world, and believes in herself.  She has also learned how to prioritize, manage her time, and is actually able to include more free time with friends.  As parents, we are impressed with Linda's professionalism and her ability to develop a positive and effective relationship with our daughter.  We are sure that P will "take" Linda with her to college and continue to enhance her learning experience.  She will continue to develop her relationship with Linda as a mentor and reap the benefits of her wisdom in education and life in general.

G.L. Parent