Today we’d like to introduce you to Irene Chun.
Now, in as much detail as you’re willing to share, why don’t you tell us about what you do?
Living in my New York has exposed me to an underground world of Asians who are not model citizens, who are incarcerated as teenagers, mothers who live in constant fear of deportation, and children who have mental and learning disabilities and yet are not knowledgeable of their rights for accommodations. The drive to instigate concrete change in policy and education regarding these areas lead to the creation of Coeus Prep in my sophomore summer, the first pro-bono/for-profit educational consulting business of the New York City area to specialize academic preparation strategy plans and teaching for Asian students who come from undocumented families and also have mental and learning disabilities. Certainly, attending prestigious educational institutions raises the likelihood for upward mobility, but it is not a guarantee for myself or those who also follow a similar path to escape the cycle of poverty or stereotyping of Asian Americans as simply “model minority”. Ideally over the years I will be able to grow Coeus Prep to have physical locations in other areas of the United States and potentially Korea, but I would also like to eventually find pediatric therapists and educators who are well-versed in disability to join the team. This would certainly help parents to familiarize themselves with a world where medical or educational diagnoses for disability are not negative reflections upon the parents but could potentially help their children gain accommodations.
Looking back, what success advice would you give to your younger self?
Most certainly my mother as she was a driving force and inspiration as to why I wanted to create Coeus Prep, to create a company that combines her teaching experience but also my knowledge of disability studies to service demographics that are otherwise ignored by companies that offer tutoring or educational consulting. The higher educational space no longer is something that ranks or gives admissions to only high-performing highschool students for the sake of entering a prestigious college. Elementary school students feel the pressure of having to do well on standardized testing and getting into prestigious institutions and yet do not have access to educational consulting or tutoring services because the majority of this said industry is geared towards highschool students. Find a mission and population to help when creating startups and that would be my definition of creating a successful venture.
Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with our audience?
Coeus distinguishes itself for its knowledge of how to create & execute an incredibly personalized trajectory for every student, regardless of concentration. Specializations of this team include: navigating the boarding and private school experience, resume building, standardized testing, application to scholarship & research opportunities, GPA building within the NY Public & Private school system, as well as others. Led by a team of experts with over 8 years of experience of marketing & teaching pre-K to high school age students in a variety of subjects in the Greater New York City area, Coeus is the first educational consulting business of the New York city area to specialize in the academic preparation and strategy of pre-K to high school students with the incorporation of academic research, volunteer & scholarship opportunities, standardized testing preparation, NY public & private school applications, boarding & private high school applications, & competitions in STEM & Humanities. The team at Coeus has been selected by leadership who knows first-hand the NY school system as well as what strategies must be uniquely created for those especially challenged socioeconomically & identify as racial or ethnic minorities. In the future we will potentially look to expand our reach but for now we have approached marketing and business in an intimate manner that focuses on local communities, which doesn’t sacrifice compassion or services for the sake of statistics. It is an unorthodox approach especially for a start-up, but because of greed for reach by other companies, local communities can be underserved.
Finally, how can people connect with you and learn more about what you do?
People can learn more about Coeus Prep Corp on Linkedin and regarding the research work I have done my most recently published work, Coloring Ivory can be bought on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Ivory-Considerations-Intersections-Minority/dp/1636766986/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1630081199&sr=1-1