Flora Oh
This review is long overdue. In 2007, I was a high school senior at Kalani struggling with math and worried about my GPA. I needed to do well in my final year to get into the University of Hawaiʻi, so I walked into Sylvan Learning Center on my own—without a parent—asking for help. Joe, who was the head of Sylvan at the time, was genuinely moved that I had taken that initiative. He believed in me immediately. He arranged for tutors to work with me every single day, for hours at a time, to help me raise my grades. Because of that support, I was accepted into the University of Hawaiʻi. But it didn’t stop there. Joe encouraged me to think bigger and consider attending a mainland university. I applied, was accepted to the University of Washington in Seattle, and transferred. That decision changed the entire trajectory of my life. After graduating, I went on to work at Microsoft for seven years, then Amazon, and later some of the top tech companies in the world. Looking back, that moment—walking into Sylvan and having Joe invest his time, care, and belief in me—was truly pivotal. It changed my life. If anyone from Sylvan sees this, I would love to know what happened to Joe. If he’s still around, please tell him that Flora turned out okay—and that I am endlessly grateful.
