Math4Girls -

Elah Bird

Math-for-Girls is a life-saver.

After receiving a discalculia diagnosis in 8th grade for my daughter, I found Vali and math for girls. What a game changer! After trying different interventions and math tutors over the years, I really didn’t have much hope for my daughter ever making progress in math after receiving an official diagnosis for a specific math disability.

Vali was very clear that she wasn’t specially trained to work with discalculic kids, but we decided to give her a try anyways. My daughter was skeptical about another tutor and not excited about extra math after school. I’m so glad we gave Vali a try. My daughter learned more in 9 months with Vali than she had in 9 years of regular math class. Even more importantly, she is feeling so much more confident about doing math and feels like she has an array of strategies to approach a challenging problem. The engagement and confidence she is now feeling in regard to math is remarkable.

We have now transitioned to Tia, one of the terrific Math-for-Girls tutors, to continue remediating middle school math while also supporting the transition into High School math. My daughter enjoys her time with Vali and Tia so much - actually looking forward to math, working independently on problems/skills between sessions, and is proud of her progress.

Vali and Tia are both so positive in their teaching approach and really paying attention to where a concept is shaky or understanding may be incomplete. They are terrific at communicating what has been covered and setting expectations.

My only wish is that we had found Math-for-Girls earlier. If you have a math avoidant student - call Vali!

Jaebock Lee

Vali is the absolute best! We wanted to augment our 10-year-old daughter's math education as it is her favorite subject. She has many activities but looks forward to her sessions with Vali the most! She is always so excited before and after the sessions.

Vali is a natural with kids and makes learning so enjoyable for her students. Her ability to identify both strengths and areas that could use more work allow her to craft a lesson plan that is perfect for the student to fully grasp and master concepts. She is also so good about sharing what our daughter is working on and why it is important. We highly recommend her to anyone!

Stephanie Chigos

Vali has been an instrumental teacher/mentor/friend/motivator to both of my daughters. At first we started with our 6th grader who needed more confidence in her abilities. Vali was able to support and provide this confidence in under 2-3 sessions. She enlightened my daughter in her abilities and knowledge and has made Math truly an amazing journey of fun, curiousity and a sense of personal pride! Our eldest daughter LOVES going to see Vali, she doesn't like to miss a session!
Our youngest daughter, in 2nd grade, has enjoyed seeing how excited her sister is to visit Vali, so she has asked us several times, when can I go to see Vali?! Our youngest has seen Vali for 2-3 sessions and has come home to show us math tricks and fun ways to understand math.
She hurries home to independently continue learning by completing math problems Vali has provided. We now have our own personal math teacher!

Vali is an inspiration to young girls who need math confidence and personal confidence in their math abilities. She is kind, encouraging, intelligent, confident and the perfect match for supplemental math support!

Jonathan Smith

Vali and Math-4-Girls have just been wonderful for our middle school daughter. Vali worked with our daughter and her math teacher to understand where Rowan was in her math journey and help her get to where she needed to be. In addition to teaching her the necessary skills and techniques, she also helped to build our daughter's confidence in herself and her school.

Peter Khoury

My daughter struggles a lot with math and Vali supports her incredibly well.

One of the small silver linings of the pandemic was that I got to watch Vali teach my daughter over Zoom. I got a chance to see what had been happening in person. I marveled at how Vali remained positive and also conveyed a lot of material at the same time. I watched he as she found ways around my daughter's stubborn streak.

I’m so happy that my daughter is back to in person tutoring with Vali.

Vali takes into account the needs of both my daughter’s long term education and the shorter term help that my daughter’s middle school math class might demand. Vali tries on different approaches to a math problem until she finds a strategy that clicks with my daughter. Vali collaborates with us as parents to ensure that our child is well supported outside of the one hour of tutoring both at home and at school.

I cannot recommend Vali more highly. She is a gem.

Amy Hansen

Our 4th grade daughter needed extra help in math and was starting to dread it. After she came home from her first tutoring session with Vali, she was almost vibrating with enthusiasm - she said, “I would see Vali every day if I could!” Vali’s manner in working with our daughter and with us is so warm and approachable. We appreciated that she spoke with our daughter’s teachers to ensure she was aligned to their methods, and she communicates well with us about logistics and about each session. In addition to patiently helping our daughter understand the concepts and make real progress, Vali has helped keep her attitude positive; I’ve found my daughter doing Vali’s worksheets on her own time without prompting. She has never once resisted or complained about going to tutoring. As we now approach the end of the school year, I asked my daughter where she thought she improved the most, and she said math. When I asked her why she improved, she said, “Because of Vali!”

Paige Barrows

Vali is an extraordinary asset to the students and families she works with.

She makes math both fun and attainable; the ultimate goal of most of us in the math education field!

I've been so fortunate to work with a number of Vali's students in my own business as they have needed test prep or moved on to their high school math phase. Each student Vali previously worked with has been engaged, curious, and motivated about their math education, a testament to Vali's wonderful mission to educate and inspire girls and her remarkable success in achieving this!

Helena Chiu

I can say all sorts of wonderful things about Ms. Vali. The short version is that if your daughter has an opportunity with work with Ms. Vali, don’t think twice, sign up!

My story begins with my then third grader, who didn’t exactly dislike math. She understood the concepts, did her homework. But she didn’t seem to have the confidence and enjoyment that I thought may be possible. Math 4 Girls came across my radar and I thought, “why not?” Fast forward nine years, my daughter has not only thrived working with Ms. Vali. But later on, with Ms. Vali’s encouragement to mentor the younger Math 4 Girls students, my daughter experienced Vali’s belief that “to teach is to learn twice.” As a result, she learned that she can work to figure out any problem put in front of her, and help someone else do the same. That is a precious lifelong gift from a teacher.

About Vali: her enthusiasm for math is contagious; growing confidence in her young students for the subject is even more so. Throughout the lively, fun, and inclusive math club meetings, Vali not only teaches, but listens just as well. Vali is an amazing role model.