Helping Students Succeed is Top of Mind For This Best in Class Education Franchisee

Hong Hong Ma had learned about Best in Class Education through multiple avenues before signing on with the brand. After hearing her nephew had enrolled in a program at the Best in Class Education Center in Elk Grove, California, she realized that this was, in fact, the same franchise she had worked at for four years as an undergraduate in San Francisco.

What had changed was simply the name. Ma worked as a math and English tutor at Brainchild Education Center before it was rebranded to Best in Class Education by CEO Hao Lam.

“I had a meaningful experience working as both a math and English tutor at Brainchild Education Center, and I enjoyed the time I spent teaching essay writing to small groups of high school kids. My efforts in guiding high school students on their college application essays helped me realize the critical importance of primary and secondary education,” said Ma.

With her sisters Sang Sang and Thi Thi, the trio is developing locations in Los Angeles, California and East Plano, Texas. And while franchising was never on Ma’s radar in terms of her career, her passion for education and helping students achieve their own dreams provided a new opportunity.

“Due to the fact that my entire educational training up to the doctoral level has been heavily immersed and focused in academic subjects, the idea of joining a franchise has never been a part of my interest or passion. I thought of franchising to be entirely business in nature,” said Ma.

While this perception proved to be true in certain respects, such as researching and choosing the right location, figuring out the logistics of center operations, and hiring staff, Ma now has more transparency into the ways franchising can help connect her with students. 

“I have renewed my genuine passion in working with students at all levels. Franchising offers new channels for me to teach students, learn about kids, communicate with parents, stay involved in issues regarding primary and secondary education and reach out to all those who desire to learn,” said Ma.

Although Ma has only had her doors open in East Plano for three months, she is proud of the full list of programs they are providing at the center for students. She has worked hard to become an expert in the subjects for each program with both required and additional self-imposed training.

“After being open for only three months, we are able to offer up to seven programs to our students. So far, we have students in English and Math programs, ACT, private tutoring, Gifted Test prep, as well as adult tutoring,” said Ma.

A typical day for Ma can take two different routes depending on whether she is working in her center or not. In-center days consist of checking up on all operational tasks to make sure everything is running smoothly, as well as checking in on the students’ performance and keeping parents informed about their progress or challenges they are facing. On the other hand, she may be keeping up to date with the news, debates and issues in local education. Being informed on the issues and perspectives regarding education including topics such as learning disabilities is important to her and for keeping students and parents satisfied with Best in Class Education.

But what Ma is most proud of is the work they do with the students and the success stories that come from putting in the hard work. One student in particular came to Best in Class Education needing help improving his test scores five weeks before the ACT after he was turned down by another larger test prep organization due to limited time. After the student studied with Best in Class and took the test, his scores improved across all subjects—English, math, reading and science.

Ma explained, “Clearly, this is a case where we did what a big-name brand in test prepping fails to do.”