BY JACKIE PILOSSOPH | Contributor July 5, 2013
12:52PM
Updated: July 8, 2013
9:10AM
Walking into the large, open loft that houses
Winnetka based Loren Academic Services feels like walking into a comfortable
living room.
Its exposed pipe and brick, huge skylights, and
balloons hanging from the rafters makes it seem like anything but a classroom.
It’s the look and feel that owner and founder of the curriculum design and
academic services company, Loren Deutsch wanted.
“When we go into a traditional classroom, the
chairs are all in rows,” said Deutsch, a professional educational therapist and
a licensed clinical social worker, who started the business in 1994. “The loft
is changeable and adaptive. It engages people and allows for discourse and
discussion that you don’t see in a traditional classroom.”
Deutsch, who holds two master’s degrees in
education and curriculum design, and social service administration, is a former
high school teacher who taught at Anshe Emet Day School and at Harper High
School, both in Chicago.
She said the jobs made her realize that some of
the students’ academic needs weren’t being met in a traditional classroom
setting, for reasons that included learning and neurological disorders, social
and emotional difficulties and behavioral problems, and that she knew she didn’t
have control as a teacher.
“I intuitively felt that if I could work one on
one with my students, I would have greater success in helping them learn,”
Deutsch said.
She spent the next six years working for the
University of Chicago as a psychiatric social worker, and as the Director for
the Academic Skills Assessment Program and the College Core Tutor program. It
was during that time that Deutsch started a private practice for psychotherapy
and educational therapy.
Loren Academic Services, which has been in the
Winnetka location for 15 years is what Deutsch calls “the evolution” of her
practice. The company offers tutoring for children from Kindergarten through
grade 12, college students and graduate students of all levels. Each student
receives a unique, personalized curriculum.
“We use an organic curriculum,” said Deutsch, who
has lived in Winnetka with her husband, Jason Harris and their four children for
15 years. “We take a non-mechanistic approach. Every student gets a
comprehensive plan with everything from learning objectives to measurable
outcomes.”
Loren Academic also trains K-12 teachers, and has
a special focus on medical students, residents and physicians pursuing
continuing education.
“Most medical students are good at memorizing
information, but when the material becomes more complex, and the volume
increases, and they have limited time, the skill set that once served them well
is no longer adequate,” said Deutsch, who still works at the University of
Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine as a medical coach, providing one on one
academic support to medical students and residents.
Dr. Alleda Mack is an internal medicine resident
at Loyola University Medical Center, who saw Deutsch for educational and
emotional counseling regularly for over 2 years during medical school.
“She’s warm and supportive, and she understands
the multi-faceted nature and the hindrances of learning,” Mack said. “She helped
me discover that I had a lot of anxiety and a lack of academic self-confidence
at certain times.”
When asked what she enjoys most about her career,
Deutsch said it’s seeing improvement in her students.
“My mission is to foster learning and a natural
curiosity in all my students,” she said.
“She came to my graduation and we both cried,”
said Mack. “I used to interpret things as ‘I’m not smart enough.’ Loren helped
me deal with that and move past it.”
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