Happy Parents and Students 

Working with Joyful Mind Tutors was one of the best decisions we’ve made. Our 8th grader was struggling pretty hard with math—we only found out during a parent-teacher conference. Niko has been a wonderful math tutor: patient, funny, and really skilled at presenting math in a fun, truly understandable way for someone who doesn’t like it much. He’s also a great mentor to our son. They worked on a lot of his habits, like rushing through problems and not showing sufficient work. By the end of the semester, he was able to improve his grades. And most excitingly for us, our son seems more confident and is more accountable in his studies.

Our son has also been struggling in U.S. History, mainly due to challenges with executive functioning. Alice has been absolutely wonderful. She’s helped our 8th grader work through missing assignments, organize his HW more efficiently, plan for big projects, and learn how to create detailed study guides for unit tests (which he used to rush through without much thought). We want to also highlight her support with test-taking. She creates custom practice tests for him before each exam based on his curriculum, and helps him with test taking strategies. His grades and confidence have steadily been improving as a result.

Overall we appreciate their personable, relaxed style. They were very responsive, flexible, and proactively gave us updates. They work great as a team to support our son across different subjects. We’re so grateful to have chosen them and we look forward to working with them this fall to help our son transition into high school!

Niko at Joyful Mind was a wonderful guide to our child J during a difficult, but critical, junior year. J enrolled in a challenging math course, but struggled to understand the material presented in class and was not comfortable engaging the teacher directly with detailed questions. J was often confused by test scoring and felt they were unable to master the material even after spending significant time reviewing and practicing.
Niko encouraged J gently, but consistently, to work through example problems even when they struggled, until they gained confidence. Their one-on-one sessions were instrumental to J’s learning process all through the year. Through these important regular interactions, J mastered the class material. More importantly, however, they learned how to trust themselves to overcome challenges, building confidence in their own abilities.
At the end of the year, J succeeded beyond their own expectations to obtain a perfect score on the final exam, and raise their grade to meet a lofty goal from the beginning of the year. It was a remarkable achievement we believe will stay with J for a long time, and enable them to be successful in future challenges of all kinds.
We enthusiastically recommend Niko and Joyful Mind for guidance through any academic environment. Niko’s thoughtful, kind and systematic approach provided incredible benefits to our child who was navigating a difficult and frustrating path. Joyful Mind stayed with them every step of the way.

Niko has been amazing with my 6th grader. He has learning challenges and Niko is patient, reassuring and supportive with him. It has really helped him overcome some anxiety taking tests, and has helped us prepare him for 7th grade. Would absolutely recommend Niko!

My 17-year-old high school student has been working with Niko for The last few months. Niko is prompt in his communication and easy to schedule with. He has been very accommodating to our changing schedule. He has been instrumental in raising my son‘s math grade from a C to a B. We plan to continue with Niko‘s tutoring services in the future, he gives my son the confidence he needs. Niko has been great, Highly recommend.

I strongly recommend Alice for Algebra 1. My daughter had a very nice experience with her.

I wish that my students at Swarthmore College and UC Berkeley would have had the benefit of Joyful Mind Tutors.  The individualized programs designed by Niko Eng and Alice Lieu not only teach strategies that maximize academic success but also provide life tools for self-knowledge—tools that, if taken on early enough, bring balance and the ability to handle pressure.  The Joyful Mind approach can help de-activate stress and neutralize toxic elements that arise in competitive environments.

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During my time teaching at Swarthmore, I have watched some of the most brilliant undergraduates procrastinate, self-destruct and burn out because they did not have the kinds of resources that Joyful Mind teaches. And I have also witnessed a progressive shortening of attention span in young people over the last 15 years. I served as a consultant to the Center for Talented Youth with these issues in mind.  That's why I am thrilled that Joyful Mind Tutors has been created. I'm excited for Niko and Alice in their efforts to brighten the culture of our education. 

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Abbe Blum, Ph.D.
Nyingma Institute
Saybrook University 

My experience with joyful mind tutoring was nothing short of amazing! I worked with both Niko and Alice for SAT prep and college advisory. Both individuals were extremely understanding of my circumstances and were willing to take the time I needed in order to grasp a concept. My SAT scores improved substantially after working with Niko in just a few sessions. I truly appreciated Niko's lessons. After years of tutoring and not having any success, Niko helped me substantially and was so patient. I always thought I was the issue but he allowed me to express my struggles and work through it! So thankful I had the opportunity to work with him.
 
Additionally, with Alice, I was able to organize and complete my college applications to the best of my ability. Without her help, there was no way I would have known where to start. She provided me with material that set me up for success from the beginning. She also took the time to review and send comprehensive feedback on my essays, which completely elevated my writing. She absolutely made a difference in my application process and I stand by the fact that I would have not been able to complete them without her. 
 
Both of them had great attitudes throughout the entire process. I truly support Joyful mind tutors and was so thankful for the opportunity to work with the both of them!

"I want to give a big shout-out to Joyful Minds Tutoring. My daughter has been struggling with math (Algebra I). She was failing miserably. Thanks to the patience, dedication, and subject knowledge, she has received from Joyful Mind Tutors, her last semester grade resulted in a huge improvement. If your child needs help with math, reach out to Alice or Niko. It's great how flexible they can be with changes in scheduling depending on test days and needing an earlier/later session. I also appreciate how they keep me updated on her progress throughout the semester. My daughter looks forward to her practice sessions with Alice and that is the most encouraging to me." 

It has been a wonderful experience working with Joyful Mind Tutors. I appreciate the dedication and effort that Niko takes to coach my kid, I am truly grateful for the services offered by the company in guiding my kid, looking forward to working with Joyful Mind tutors in the future too. thank you.

"Niko was super helpful in helping me prepare for the AP Chemistry and AP Calc AB exams and helping me get a 5 on both tests. He did a great job focusing on and reviewing the topics I needed help understanding to ensure I focused on the most important topics for me. He is also very kind and easy to work with, which made studying with him a great experience. He was also very flexible in scheduling sessions that worked for my schedule."

"At first I was against the idea of getting help through tutoring because I usually have a kind of do-it-yourself attitude. Eventually, I realized I had to put my pride aside and ask for help if I wanted to make it through Pre-Calculus.  I had just moved schools midway through junior year, and I had come from a completely different educational system in Europe.  The class I was taking was totally different than anything I had done previously.  When we first started, I was really worried about not understanding things quickly or right away.  Niko was really understanding about my situation.  He helped me realize it was okay to not know the answer, which was a big relief.  We went over how to show work and do problems step-by-step to get to the right answer.  We also realized that I was having such a hard time in my class because I needed to go back and review concepts from previous math classes.  Niko helped me catch up on those concepts, and that helped me feel more prepared with my classwork.  I have loved working with Niko, and I would highly recommend Joyful Mind Tutors for any friend or anyone that is in need of a compassionate and effective tutor!"

“Niko has been tutoring my son since early 2024 – Niko is one of the best tutors he's ever had. What is particularly special about Niko is that he (a) deeply cares about his students' progress & learning (b) is very thoughtful about adapting his style to his student's skills & learning style (c) is exceptionally good at following up post-session to ensure that progress is not just limited to live sessions. I would recommend Niko without any reservations and am looking forward to him tutoring my son in his junior and senior years.” 

"This letter is to highly recommend Niko Eng as a tutor to anyone whose child needs some assistance.
 
Our family came to Niko in January 2024 with a tall order: to help our child J. (who uses they/them pronouns) to make up a lot of missed work in their Algebra 2 Advanced class, which put them on the brink of failure, while keeping up with the current material. Niko fully delivered and the outcome was even better than we’d hoped. J. has always been a good student but missed several weeks at the start of school in fall due to illness, and entered their sophomore year very behind in all their subjects. They
worked extensively with a generalist tutor and managed to catch up and get As and Bs at the end of the semester, except in math where their test average put them at something like a D+. We discussed the situation with the teacher and guidance counselor, and the teacher agreed to give J. an incomplete for the semester with the understanding that they would work through the old material from the beginning of the year and take those tests, which the teacher had initially waived for them, to pull up their grade.

J.’s tutor from fall had moved out of town, so we decided a math specialist was really what J. needed to get a solid grip on the material. We connected with Niko through AJ tutoring and he dove into the work with J., systematically tackling the units from the beginning of the year while keeping abreast of the new topics taught in the spring. His expert knowledge was critical in thoroughly teaching and explaining the math, keying in on J.’s weak points and giving them the foundational knowledge they needed. After making up the fall exams, J. was able to pull the D+ up to a B- for the fall semester. Even more impressive, they got
an A- for the spring semester which was well beyond our expectations. I’m certain none of that would have been possible without Niko.

In sum, Niko’s tutoring goes well beyond homework assistance and study policing – he is fully capable of teaching advanced math curricula and turning things around for a student who feels lost. We are truly grateful to have found him!"

“I was faced with many challenges when studying for chemistry, such as my teachers teaching style and the materials I was provided. Niko helped me find the missing pieces in my understanding of the material. I truly believe I would not have survived that course without his help. I couldn’t have gotten this type of help any other way. I ended up getting a 4 on the AP Chemistry test!”

"Niko has been really helpful for finishing my Algebra 2 course. Niko helped me by tutoring me in a teaching style that best suited my learning style. I'm more of a visual, artistic person, so Niko adapted our math lessons to provide plenty of graphs and visual explanations. His attentive tutoring allowed me to grow in the class and raise my final course grade."