For nine years, Amanda Martinsen taught elementary and middle school and enjoyed the challenges of watching children learn. Her teaching platform may have changed since then but her energy and interest in education remains.
Martinsen, a Northbrook resident, is the founder and president MAXimize Tutor, a full scale tutoring service for students of all ages named in honor of her late son, Max. After starting the organization just over three years ago, Martinsen and her staff now assist between 60 to 70 area students from prekindergarten through high school.
“I think I have always been very dedicated to my students and I really care about them being successful in education,” she said. “I always try to go above and beyond for all of my students.”
Martinsen taught in the Glenview and Northfield public school districts for almost a decade, and married to her husband Michael, who teaches math and science in the Winnetka District 36 system.
In April 2015, she delivered a son, MJ and in July 2020, the couple was expecting twin boys.
Everything changed in March 2020 when Amanda had an emergency delivery. One of the two boys, Lincoln, weighed less than two pounds when he was born and stayed in Evanston Hospital for four months. The other son, Max, died eight hours after delivery.
Amid their sadness over Max, the parents had to constantly rotate going home to watch MJ and Lincoln as COVID-19 mitigations started to grip the world, including the hospital.
Lincoln did get stronger and eventually was able go home but Martinsen sensed it was time for a career shift, at least temporarily.
“I didn’t want to bring Lincoln home from the hospital and go immediately back to the classroom,” she remembered.
While the plan all along was to return to full-time teaching, Martinsen started tutoring math part-time to one of her former students. Impressed with her abilities, the student’s family recommended her to other local families. By September, she had a long waiting list of students wanting to work with her.
Among those who sought out Martinsen was Winnetka’s Andrea White who saw a social media post and reached out to get tutoring help for her son, then in the third grade.
“She has made him look at math in a different way,” White said. “He is able to look at problems that he has never seen before and he is able to deconstruct them and he just knows how to approach problems.”
As she took on more and more satisfied clients, business was going so well that Martinsen needed to hire employees. She recalled at the height of the pandemic restrictions, texts coming in from students asking for immediate help in between sessions.
“I did the best I could to keep up with answering their questions, but by January 2021 the time commitment of that became difficult to manage,” Martinsen said.
At that point, she employed her first college student tutor to help manage the direct homework support questions. At first, college students engaged in Zoom tutoring for student assistance. She then heard from some local full-time teachers who were interested in making additional money on the side.
“They really believe in my philosophy in how we are supporting students,” she said.
Her tutoring service has now expanded and assists students in all traditional education subjects.
“Everything we do is customized to each and every student’s unique needs and every tutoring plan looks different,” she said.
While Martinsen continues to tutor math herself as well as working with students on study and assignment management, she now employs eight teachers who see students in person and about 16 college students working with students over video conference.
Matchups are made through the subject, but Martinsen also tries to match personalities.
“I try the best I can to meet every student first so I can get to know them and I pair with someone I think would be a good match,” she said.
Meanwhile, Max remains close with the company named after him.
“Lincoln (who is now healthy and in preschool) was the reason that I did this as I wanted to be there for him,” Martinsen said. “But Max was a big part of this and I wanted to keep his memory alive.”
As she looks forward, Martinsen speaks excitedly about the business and what it meant for her on a personal level.
“I feel very fortunate that I am able to do it because I have so much more flexibility,” she said. “I am busy but being able to be present for Lincoln over these few years and being able to take him and pick him up from preschool, I never would have been able to do that if I was a full-time teacher.”
But she also speaks of the excitement she has for her students.
“It has been so rewarding watching these kids grow up and watching the progress they have made,” she said.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
