Luke Fronefield
Luke has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Dickinson College and more than fifteen years’ experience tutoring math, reading, and writing. He has perfect scores in the SAT and ACT; hundreds of Luke’s students have reached or exceeded their score goals.
The story of First Class Prep began when a family friend asked Luke to tutor their son Charlie for his SAT. Having recently graduated Dickinson, Luke developed a curriculum based on his own studies and experience. Charlie, who needed a boost of 200 points in order to get into his top-choice college, met with Luke weekly and ultimately bolstered his score by more than 300 points. Soon, Luke was receiving dozens of calls from other parents. Fast-forward roughly 15 years, Luke has increased the size and scope of his tutoring all while maintaining the philosophy and standards that proved so beneficial to Charlie: personalized tutoring focused on each student’s innate style of learning and score goals. The short-term result: higher scores. The long-term result: improved math, reading and writing skills for college and beyond. Luke tutors the SAT, ACT, SAT subject tests, and academic classes.
Luke is also a writer and filmmaker whose film EL MAR Y EL—a tragicomedy about the Mariel Boatlift—was purchased and featured by HBO. His previous credits include THE METER MAN OF LE MOUTRECHON, which was awarded "Best Director" and "Audience Favorite" in the Cinema Slam competition at the Miami International Film Festival.
Julio Machado
Julio has a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University (’03) and an MFA in Creative Writing from FIU. He has been working in the admissions and test preparation field for more than 15 years.
Since graduating college, he has worked principally as an educator. He has taught high school English and math, as well as SAT and ACT preparation. In 2008, he and Luke Fronefield founded First Class Prep. His duties within the company include the hiring and training of new tutors, as well as the continued education and oversight of its veteran tutoring staff. It’s an incredibly rewarding and interesting position, one that has greatly improved his abilities as a tutor.
Today, he splits his attention between those two roles. As a business manager, he strives to find the best available talent and build strong relationships with the company's clients. He works to set the firm apart from the dishonest, ineffective, and sometimes predatory companies that seem so common in the industry. As a private tutor, he helps students manage the complex challenges they face in the college application process. Part of his job is to fill in the gaps left in their high school careers, but only a small part. Mostly, his job is to help students become better readers and problem-solvers. He doesn't believe in tricks or secrets—to score better, students have to develop their skills in the most fundamental way.
Julio believes that this is what holds most students back: not the words they don’t know, or the math concepts they don’t remember, but the way they receive and process information, the basic psychological and intellectual approach they bring to bear on difficult questions. By improving in these areas, students not only see substantial (and in some cases, near-miraculous) improvements in their test scores, but they are also preparing for the rigors of college classes and the lives waiting just beyond.
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