More Than a Mission: Meet the People of Equal Education
This blog post, written by summer intern Maytal Lefkowitz, offers a personal and in-depth look at her two-month experience with Equal Education.
Equal Education is more than an organization. It is more than “Tuition Business of the Year 2025”, it is more than just a company, and it is certainly more than an office space. After interning with Equal Education for the past two months, I can confidently say that we are a team, a team that works seamlessly to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students, tutors, and staff.
Hello! My name is May. I am from San Diego, California, and I study Social Work at Indiana University. I have been one of Equal Education’s summer interns working closely with the Partnerships Team to assist with market research and analysis, bid writing, and check-in calls with parents and carers. This internship was my first time in a professional office setting, and when I arrived I was determined to excel in my projects and tasks. What I did not expect, however, was finding an incredibly welcoming group of people, eager to support me every step of the way.
I assumed the office culture would be positive and my co-workers would be friendly, but my expectations were far exceeded. I can walk into our London office on Tuesday and have at least three individuals ask me about how my previous weekend was. By Thursday, someone will be asking me about plans for the next one. If I have a question about our online platforms or how Key Stages translate to U.S. grade levels, multiple people in the office would pause what they are working on and offer to help. I know that every employee of Equal Education truly cares about our students and tutor community, and I believe these individuals do not receive enough credit for the life-changing work they do every day behind the scenes.
Equal Education has over thirty brilliant, hard-working employees, all committed to ensuring that every student has a positive tutoring experience and every tutor has what they need to thrive. While I didn’t have time to interview all of them, I was able to speak with a few about their journey with Equal Education.
The first person I interviewed was my co-intern, Lucy Eklund. She is studying Psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder and has been working closely with the Recruitment team this summer. I started off the interview with some more serious questions, asking her why she chose to intern with Equal Education and what she learned most about education from this experience.
Lucy shared that being part of the team makes her feel like she’s genuinely making a difference. “Equal Education’s mission really aligned with some of my passions, and the impact they are making on English education is incomparable,” she explained. When asked about her biggest takeaway from the internship, Lucy said it was learning “how important effective communication is in models like ours,” and noticing how “every team is constantly collaborating and every task depends on multiple people for successful completion.”
If Lucy could put the Equal Education (EE) team into one sentence she would describe us as “genuinely some of the kindest, most well-driven people I have had the honor of knowing”, and if we had a mascot Lucy thinks it would be an elk! My final question to Lucy was if she was stranded on a desert island which EE team member would she want to be with, and she chose John, our Programmes Manager and Safeguarding Lead. She said she believes John would stay calm, cool, and collected - crucial for surviving on a deserted island!
My second interview was with Lorena Piedrahita-Lopez, a member of our Partnership team. Lorena recently joined Equal Education after working as a teacher in South London. She explained that she wanted “to stay in education but not be a teacher”, and when the EE job came up she felt strongly aligned with our mission to break down education barriers and she knew that she could bring a lot to our team.
I asked Lorena to take me through a day in her life as part of the Partnerships team to give me a peek into her day-to-day operations. She arrives at our office around 9am and starts with some admin work, organizing the mini competitions in our inbox and updating our online platforms. Her mornings often include meetings with several EE teams, such as marketing, allocations, and recruitment. After taking an early lunch, she spends the rest of the afternoon writing mini bid applications to local authorities and catching up on any remaining administrative tasks.
When I asked how she would describe the team at EE, Lorena said, “The EE team is very friendly and makes me feel very comfortable.” For my more light-hearted questions I asked who she would want by her side on a desert island. She smiled and said Elise, one of our Partnerships Account Managers. And finally, when I asked what EE’s mascot would be, Lorena chose a lion.
Next, I sat down with Dani Jones, another one of our incredible Partnerships Account Managers. My first question was what is her role on the Equal Education team, and she explained that she “looks after all of our key client accounts” and does “outreach to increase our client pool and client portfolio to try to bring on new clients!” Dani attends conferences, applies for awards, and looks into new opportunities to branch out into different areas and spread our network. She also applies for tenders with local authorities to expand our tuition services and manages key projects that help drive Equal Education forward.
My next question to Dani was my favorite. I asked her what keeps her motivated in the education space and she told me how she was an educator before coming to EE. Dani was a teacher, a SEND Coordinator, and an assistant head in primary education for 16 years, and what motivates her to work in the education field is helping ensure positive outcomes for young people and making sure their future is as successful, positive, and bright as possible. Dani explained how difficult it can be for mainstream education to provide for disadvantaged students with greater needs, and how important it is for them to have extra support and provision - both academically and emotionally.
If Dani could describe our team in one sentence she said, “Dedicated to supporting the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable young people” and she believes our mascot would be an elephant because they never forget the needs of young people. I then asked Dani who she would want to be stranded on a deserted island with, and after much laughing and deliberation she said Emma, our Partnerships Director! Dani said, “Probably Emma, because she would problem solve the heck out of that. She would be strategizing a way to get off the island as quickly as possible and she would be lovely along the way”.
From there, I turned to Gemma Tregunna, our People and Culture Manager. She works very closely with our internal team, as well as with our overarching tutor community. My first question was simple: what do you like most about working at Equal Education? Gemma smiled and said, “Gosh, so many things! Firstly, it’s the team. To get to work alongside a group of people every day who are so passionate about making a difference for young people is inspiring.” She continued to tell me about how she genuinely looks forward to seeing our team in the office each day, and how much she loves hearing good news stories about the work we do and the difference we make.
I asked Gemma how she would describe our team in a sentence, and after prefacing with “I am going to be cheesy and incorporate our Equal Education values” she answered, “At Equal Education we are child-centred, human, restless and effective in our mission to change the lives and prospects of under-resourced learners across the UK.” Gemma believes that our Equal Education mascot would be “a giant fluffy blue bear who would bring a lot of comfort to our students. Paul would probably like it to look like the Salesforce bear, but I'm not so sure about that!” If she were to be stranded on an island she would want to be with Rachel. “After seeing Rachel tie knots to build a raft on our away day this year - it's got to be her!” Gemma added!
Finally, for my last interview I had a chat with Sophie Richards. Sophie is our Allocations Team Lead, responsible for finding tutors for our students and ensuring every tutor is being paired with the right students. She oversees this team and is also one of our Deputy Safeguarding Leads.
I asked Sophie a few questions, but my favorite by far was what one of her favorite memories with our team is. She told me about EE’s most recent team building away days, which we do every year to step out of the office and form connections with our colleagues. “This year in particular we had to build a raft from different bits and bobs and float down the Thames! It was a really sunny day and we played games and races, it was great to have a good laugh with the team and bond. When you have those great connections you want to work hard for those team members, it brings us all together.”
To describe our team in one sentence, Sophie said, “The most positive group of people I’ve ever worked with, who are all deeply and intrinsically motivated by the same mission.” Watching her smile as she carefully pieced those words together made it clear to me just how much she meant them. I then asked her what our mascot would be, and her answer made me laugh so hard I genuinely stopped typing! She said we would be a red London bus, “because people can get on and off the bus! Like our children coming on to our tuition programs, we help them get to their destination which is their GCSEs or exams and then they get off the bus and get on with their lives! It’s the learning bus!” If Sophie were to be stranded on an island, she said she would want to be with John, our Programmes Manager and Safeguarding Lead, because he is very positive, would be really proactive, and would think of a creative solution to hopefully get us off the island. She said, “Yeah, I’m gonna go with John. He gets stuff done but also I can have a good chat and laugh with him as well!”.
Speaking with Lucy, Lorena, Dani, Gemma, and Sophie gave me so many insights into what makes Equal Education special. To wrap up, I wanted to take a moment to answer a few of those same questions myself. I joined the Equal Education team because I wanted to gain meaningful experience in a mission‑driven organization where I could see the real impact of my work. The chance to contribute to breaking down barriers in education, while learning from such passionate, supportive colleagues, was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
My favorite part of this internship has been doing check in calls and emails with parents and carers, because hearing directly from them how their student is doing makes our work feel so clear and deeply worthwhile. I love going home after the work day is done and still receiving emails from parents and carers about how much their child has improved through tuition, or how much their student likes their tutor. These moments remind me exactly why the work we’re doing behind the scenes matters, and keeps me motivated to give my best every day.
Writing this piece has given me an even deeper appreciation for the people who make Equal Education what it is. Behind every successful tuition session is a team of dedicated, passionate individuals working tirelessly to support our community. I feel so grateful to have been a part of this team, even just for a summer, and I can’t wait to carry what I’ve learned here into everything I do next.
Don’t think I would end without telling you what our mascot would be! I think we would be a bee, because we are hard-working, collaborative, and always busy buzzing from one thing to the next. The same way bees pollinate plants to help flowers grow and thrive, we nurture our students’ growth, helping them flourish academically and personally. And if I were stranded on an island, I would want to be with Sophie because she would never cease to make me laugh and turn the entire thing into a crazy adventure.