“Kids are each unique. But in too many school settings, they aren’t allowed to need individual differentiation—the system tries to take their uniqueness out of them,” says Marissa Hess, founder of Urban Cottage in Tampa, FL.

Marissa wanted something different for herself and her children. “Even within my own three children, there were different needs,” she says. “Some were gifted and needed extra challenges. But we also had some learning disabilities that needed extra time. I wanted each of them to be seen for who they are, and that wasn’t happening.”

A former homeschooler herself, Marissa decided to start educating her children at home according to her own philosophy that focused on their individual needs. The more she shared her approach, the more she found other parents who wanted something similar for their kids. She began doing educational consulting and tutoring.

In 2015, Marissa launched Urban Cottage to help parents curate an education that fits each child’s needs. She offers as much or as little support as families choose. Some only take advantage of her consulting program, where she designs individualized programs to meet a wide variety of educational goals. Urban Cottage even employs an educational psychologist, which was tough to find since Marissa wanted someone who understood the value of homeschooling and the importance of students’ individual learning needs.

Other families participate in Urban Cottage’s core sessions, where students receive individualized or small-group instruction in math, language arts, history, geography, and science. Instructors are all certified teachers or experts in their fields who share Marissa’s commitment to helping kids reach their potential while developing a love of learning. For example, the science teacher has a masters in environmental science and doctoral work in marine geology. She spent over a year on research vessels and lived off of the grid in Bangladesh doing research on the coastline for Vanderbilt University.

In the beginning, Urban Cottage was housed in a residential property and could only serve 10 children per session while keeping her 5:1 student-to-teacher ratio. This meant she was constantly having to turn families away from her classes. In December 2019, Marissa found a commercial property that would allow her to expand, and she completed her purchase of the property in February 2020—right before education was disrupted by school closures related to COVID-19. As a result, she had a greater capacity to help families right as many were desperate for her assistance.

Urban Cottage is a direct provider with Step Up for Students, an organization that helps administer four scholarships in Florida. This allows students from varied backgrounds to access Marissa’s services. She says some families wouldn’t be able to afford to attend without the scholarships and others could afford elite private schools but prefer the atmosphere at Urban Cottage. She sees this diversity as a strength.

With the school year wrapped up, Urban Cottage is now in the midst of an exciting lineup of summer camps. Topics include marine biology, rainforests, space, art, etiquette, Africa, math, and more. The camps focus on experiential learning with high-quality instruction in a microgroup setting.

Education entrepreneurs around the country, like Marissa, are stepping up to offer children unique learning environments. As more states adopt policies that allow funding to follow students, we’re likely to see these individualized education options grow and expand.