A Good Place to Learn - The Huntington Learning Center

At the Smithtown location of the Huntington Learning Center, students K through 12 have the opportunity to work with professional tutors to improve their learning and academic performance.

According to Erin Crouthamel, the Executive Director of Education at HLC, the process begins when parents contact the center with concerns regarding a child’s academic performance. At that point, an initial assessment is conducted, and a specific education plan is developed to address the student’s deficiencies. Sessions vary from 30 minutes to an hour with an emphasis on building foundational skills, leading to more specific concerns. 

The Smithtown location is currently servicing about 40 students and is located in the Village Commons shopping center off East Main Street in Smithtown.

Huntington Learning Center, a franchise-based business, operates four centers under one franchise in Suffolk County. The four locations are Miller Placer, Patchogue, Bay shore and Smithtown. The Smithtown location employs about 29 tutors.

Chris Rose, the Executive Director at HLC, discussed what things were like when the pandemic hit. “Fortunately for us, we were up and ready with our zoom technology, and we received excellent support from our corporate headquarters,” explained Rose. However, now we’re mostly back to in person learning, although some students still utilize our distance learning for convenience.

Crouthamel, who holds a master’s degree in Literacy Education and is a former classroom teacher, explained that the the center's distance learning technology is excellent, including the ability to annotate (add text or illustration) or even recreate a white board as with in-person learning. In addition, their corporate office provided on line versions of all the teaching materials and lesson plans.

“There is no question students fell behind during the pandemic,” explained Crouthamel, and “it’s difficult for classroom teachers to help these students when they are dealing with a class of thirty to forty students.” “We can step in and work with the classroom teacher to help fill in the gaps with a particular student.”

Huntington Learning Center also provides test and entrance exam preparation services, including the SAT s, added Rose, for students who are ready for that step. 

Huntington Learning Center has a website, https://huntingtonhelps.com/, which details all the services offered, lists the locations and hours, and has a FAQs tab.