Hidden Gems: Meet Puja Bhakuni of Fun With Math And Reading

Today we’d like to introduce you to Puja Bhakuni.

Hi Puja, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up, I did everything with my two sisters, from sharing our wardrobe to sharing laughter and secrets to helping our mom and especially studying together. Even if I had no experience with a subject, I would take time to learn it myself so that I could help them. As a result, I slowly grew more and more appreciative of teaching and channeled it to teaching other kids while I was in high school, starting during my 9th grade and throughout college. I discovered that I was passionate about teaching while completing my Master’s degree in Mathematics.

When I moved to the US, I could not teach math since the environment and the curriculum were completely different compared to back home in India. So, I decided to work as a software engineer but quickly realized it was not for me. Thus, I decided to work hard and pursue my passion for teaching math. I started by working at different tutoring centers to gain experience in the core curriculum. While my time spent there was valuable and taught me skills to help me pursue tutoring, I often found it unfulfilling and not meeting the needs of the student. I needed something where I was not bound to anyone or was unable to plan customized lessons to meet each student’s requirements.

I decided to rather invest a lot of time into developing the best curriculum for the kids in order to help me have the most effective math materials to use in tutoring kids. I started gathering more information about the Georgia curriculum for each grade and most of the days I’d be up all night long working on the curriculum while also taking care of my family.

Sometime in 2008, while I was still tutoring at a franchise, one of the student’s parents approached me and asked to teach their child privately as the student was really struggling. After just a month of classes, the child started doing really well in school. Afterward, I started getting more and more students, so I decided to quit my job, start my private math tutoring classes and never looked back.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The path to success is never straight and smooth, but if you enjoy what you do, the journey becomes gratifying. Every obstacle may have seemed hard during the process, but now, they’re just stories I share with people. My mantra for life is “do your best and forget about the rest”. I never think about the outcome, I just follow my heart. I have also been lucky to have support from my family and friends. For example, back in India, if my mom hadn’t fought the school administration to help me take math, I would’ve never reached where I am today. Since we did not have math at my girls-only school, I had to attend high school at an all-boys school to pursue my passion in math. I take all the obstacles as life lessons to help me grow.

We’ve been impressed with Fun With Math And Reading, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I have been teaching math for over 22-23 years. I founded Fun with Math in Alpharetta based on the overwhelming number of parents who told me that their children started enjoying and loving math because of my classes. I bought my own place in 2016 to handle the increase in the number of kids. Even though, every year, I have 30-40 students on the waiting list, I limit the number of students I enroll because I believe in giving each student the time they need to succeed. Every day brings me happiness and joy as I help the kids build a strong foundation in Math. I hope to keep helping as many students as possible in the future. One of my favorite moments is seeing a student succeed and start to love math after going through months of them hating and struggling with it. I even expanded to reading after thousands of requests, thus creating “Fun with Math and Reading”. I am so lucky and grateful that I get to pursue my passion in teaching. I feel proud and fulfilled that I’m helping make the future generation stronger.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
If you knew me growing up, you would have described me as a young lady who likes to work hard, enjoy enriching play time, and who also derives joy in helping others. Growing up, every day, I woke up at 4 am to tutor kids. I would leave home at 8 am and ride on a bus for almost 2 hours to get to college. Once my classes were over, I would ride back and tutor even more kids, staying up until sometimes even upto 8pm or 9pm in the evening. While I led a very busy life, I was always conscious of using my time wisely, balancing my time between my studies and my home responsibilities. However, I always made sure to give myself time to relax and enjoy numerous hobbies, such as art & crafts, knitting, painting, hiking, and enjoying nature.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://g.co/kgs/jG7WFG
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atl_puja/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunWithMathk12/