Couple assumes ownership of Sylvan Learning of Ocoee

OCOEE — For Ranjit and Sophia Wasu, a chance encounter changed the rest of their lives. The two met at a wedding in London and were engaged three days later. 

After that, everything fell into place, Sophia said. Five years later, the couple is now happily married with two children and recently became the new owners of Sylvan Learning in Ocoee, a tutoring center dedicated to helping students reach their full potential throughout their entire academic life.

“We felt like we knew each other for our whole lives,” Sophia said. “It was the weirdest thing, because I never believed in it.”

Taking on this new endeavor, Ranjit and Sophia hope to enhance learning in ways that might not be available in a large school classroom. They are working to involve the local community to make it easier for students to receive the necessary help to succeed, contacting schools, libraries, churches, after-school groups and more. The Wasus want to ensure learning is available not only at the Sylvan Center but also where it will be most accessible to the students.

“We’ve gotten a lot of excitement around Sophia and Ranjit,” said Georgia Paulding, Sylvan Learning director of franchise development. “They have reached out to the community through a number of organizations, offering scholarships for Sylvan programs, donating water and food through local churches and providing no-cost solutions to schools through the online reading motivation, Book Adventure.”

Moreover, using SylvanSync, the couple incorporates iPads to bring programs out into the community and directly to the students. Ranjit and Sophia are working to set up after-school programs, so students won’t have to find additional transportation to the center. 

“A lot of times, parents can’t leave work to go pick up their kid and drop them off (at Sylvan),” Sophia said. “It’s not very convenient.”

Before discovering their mutual interest in education, the Wasus searched for other independent business adventures. They first opened a bakery in London and worked as a team, making a living out of Sophia’s baking hobby and Ranjit’s business experience. The Wasus soon found they had a shared belief in strong education, reinforced by the birth of their son, Amric, 3.

“When you’re a new parent, you do everything you can to make sure your kid has everything they need,” Sophia said. “He was barely born, and we were already looking at Gymboree classes, we had gotten Baby Einstein and we had Baby Can Read.”

The Wasus also now have a daughter, Ayva, who is almost 1 year old.

They decided to move to the United States with the hope of starting another business. They knew they wanted to work with children but didn’t have a specific plan in mind — until Sophia heard about Sylvan through a friend.

“It was the weirdest thing, because the Sylvan Centers don’t really go on sale, because people are so happy with the brand,” Sophia said. “But, it just happened to be that there was an Ocoee one for sale, and we went to look at it. ... Everything was falling right into place.”

For more information, visit tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/Ocoee or call (407) 295-3178.

Contact Shari Roach at [email protected].