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ABOUT The Ivy Key is a Manhattan-based tutoring company that brings Ivy League credentials to standardized test preparation and tutoring.

With over 10 years of educational experience, the company provides a holistic approach to the high school and college admissions process.

It couples expert tutors and admissions consultants with rigorous coursework and a proven curriculum.

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Jae Gardner is the founder of The Ivy Key, a Manhattan-based tutoring company that employs Ivy League graduates to help urban school students prepare for the college admissions process and learn the tricks of the trade to gain access to Ivy League universities that has proven challenging for many public school students.Born and raised in the New York City metro area, Gardner attended Regis High School in the Upper East Side and then Harvard University, where he graduated in 2008 with bachelor’s degrees in economics and sociology.By the tender age of 24, he had already launched four different start-ups in a wide range of industries. The 2008 economic meltdown, however, prompted Gardner to focus his entrepreneurial talents on the educational realm where he had already spent thousands of hours tutoring high school and college classmates to improve their standardized test scores as well as grades.

The young entrepreneur partnered with fellow Ivy League graduate Chris McConnell, to bank upon their prestigious credentials and years of tutoring experience to open their own company – The Ivy Key. The two partners pooled together $25,000 they had earned over the years to launch the educational start-up, which began in the attic of Gardner’s family home and has since expanded to an over $300,000-a-year operation employing 20 tutors and serving nearly 100 schools across the New York City area.Keeping with the company’s philosophy that all qualified students should have equal access to higher education, the founders soon launched the Climbing Ivy Program, which provides free tutoring and college admission advising to economically disadvantaged public school students. Gardner, who has been tutoring for over a decade, maintains the belief that education is the key to success in America. Using his business acumen to expand access to great education made perfect sense in his quest to give back to the community. Inner-city students, he says, oftentimes lack the finances -- not the will -- to perform well enough on standardized tests to go to college, especially in the Ivy League. Like most start-ups, the duo faced their share of challenges. It certainly didn’t help that they started their venture in the midst of the nation’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But necessity brought about innovation. In 2009 the business began to take off putting the company on the direct path to profitability, thanks to positive word-of-mouth and media buzz. NY1 News even recognized the founders as “New Yorkers of the Week.”Now in 2011, Gardner, who considers his greatest asset to be his ability to inspire his students and their parents, looks back at his decision to launch The Ivy Key with absolutely no regrets. He looks to the future with great optimism and plans to expand his enterprise to cloud education and publication of the company’s patented course manuals.

LEADERSHIP

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‣ Founded in 2009 by Jae Gardner and fellow Harvard University graduate Chris McConnell with an initial investment of $25,000. McConnell subsequently sold his stake in 2010.

‣ The Ivy Key is expected to post over $300,000 in revenues by 2011’s end, up 100 percent from 2010, and have 20 tutors, including three full-time on its payroll. The majority -- 80 percent -- of the company’s business comes from SAT test prep.

‣ Services offered: Extensive preparation for Graduate School Admissions Tests (GRE, MCAT, LSAT, GMAT), SAT, ACT, SHSAT (Specialized High School Administration Test), ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam) and N.Y. Regents as well as tutoring in high-school subjects, mentoring and college admissions advising, among others.

‣ At the height of SAT preparation season, the Ivy Key serves up to 500 students a week. The racial/ethnic makeup of students served is: 60 percent African-American, 30 percent white and 10 percent Hispanic and Asian.

‣‣ The company’s students improve their scores by 300 points

on average. If students fail to better their performance, the company will provide free classes and practice tests until they do. That is The Ivy Key’s guarantee.

‣ Through its Climbing Ivy program, the company offers free tutoring to promising and economically disadvantaged New York public school students. A total of 200 have been served since 2009, as part of The Ivy Key’s commitment to giving all students – regardless of economic status -- equal opportunity to attend college.

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The program earned the founders recognition as New Yorkers of the Week by NY1 News.

‣ Tutors are graduates of Ivy League or comparable institutions who are recruited by referral and matched with students based on gender and extracurricular endeavors.  

‣ Future plans include expansion into publishing course books, producing online tutorials and creating an online tutoring platform to serve students outside the New York City area.

FACT SHEET

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Al Noor SchoolAcademy of Finance (1 Program) Manhattan Village Academy Aviation Career and Technical Education High School Cinema School Columbia Secondary School East-West School of International Studies Federation of Italian American Young Women’s Leadership School, Queens Medgar Evers College Preparatory School Queens Metropolitan High School Vanguard High School William Cullen Bryant High School Women’s Academy of Excellence Pace High School QSI SAYA

The Young Women’s Leadership School, Astoria Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning High School Benjamin Banneker Academy Pathways College Preparatory School: A College Board School Manhattan Business Academy High School for Construction Trades, Engineering Architecture All City Leadership High School East Side Community High School Ross Global Academy charter School NYC Museum School SOF JHS 189Q HSTAT Bedstuy Restoration Center Asociaciones Dominicanas Association of the Bar of City of New YorkBeacon High School Bronx Leadership Academy High School Brooklyn CollegiateHigh School For Public Service Heroes of TomorrowInternational Arts Business SchoolHigh School of Applied Communication Lafayette Campus Pan American International High School Preparatory Academy for Writers Queens Collegiate Queens High School of TeachingRichard Green High School Of Teaching School for Democracy and Leadership School for Human Rights UPROSE William E. Grady High School Lower East side Girl’s Club Mott Haven High School Kings Bay YM-YWHA, Inc.Indochina Sino-American Community Center Newcomers High School New York Urban League Miraj Islamic School World Journalism Preparatory

PARTNERS

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For More Information:

The Ivy Key34 East 68th StreetNew York, N.Y. 10065

646-355-9782info@theivykey.comi

CONTACT

Website: theivykey.com

YouTube: youtube.com/TheIvyKey

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/TheIvyKeyTwitter: @theivykey