HISTORY

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CStarsky Lifelong Learning LLC was established in 2014 to provide quality learning opportunities for all ages. 

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OUR FOUNDER

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Our founder, Cathy Stawarski, has a doctorate in Child and Family Development, a Master's degree in Human Development and Family Studies, and a Bachelor's degree in Child Development. Early in her career Cathy worked with children in recreation and education programs. She also worked in lab schools at the Colorado State University and the University of Georgia.  In those roles she taught undergraduate students how to work with preschool children and provided parents with feedback on their children's progress. She also conducted developmental assessments of preschool children during her Master's program and provided feedback to parents. As a graduate research assistant at the University of Georgia Cathy supported a longitudinal research program focussed on families as interactive systems.

 

After graduate school Cathy's focus transitioned into developing and evaluating adult learning programs. She worked for several federal government contractors in the Washington DC area, including the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), Booz Allen, and PTG International. She earned a Multimedia Development Certificate from George Mason University and learned how to create learning activities for online delivery.  To improve her training evaluation skills she also became a Certified ROI Practioner with the ROI Institute and Kirkpatrick Bronze Certified with Kirkpatrick Partners. Cathy was the lead staff member on the HumRRO team that developed the Return on Learning Experience (ROLE) Model (used to evaluate leadership development programs). With strong research skills, developing online data collection instruments was a natural progression. She also continued to build her skills designing and delivering virtual instructor-led training (VILT).

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As the pandemic hit, Cathy was well-positioned to convert the in-person writing workshops she was offering through the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Adult and Community Education (ACE) Program to virtual delivery.  She also completed the Henry Harvin certificate to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL). Her early experience tutoring English as a second language was with the Brambleton Public Library (a Loudoun County Public Library) Virtual ESOL Tutor Program. She then moved on to co-teach an advanced virtual ESOL course with the Washington English Center (WEC). Cathy continues to volunteer with WEC conducting conversation tutoring with a student from China. She also offers virtual tutoring on a variety of subjects through CStarsky Lifelong Learning and Varsity Tutors.

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Cathy has worked in the Washington DC Area doing contracting work for public and private sector organizations since 1987.  Working with partners from around the Washington DC Area, and across the country, she has a strong network of training specialists that can be leveraged to help meet your needs. Cathy has supported the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Colorado State University since 2019 (https://courses.online.colostate.edu/). ​

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Examples of Virtual Tutoring Reviews

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"I am extremely pleased with the tutor's exceptional patience and ability to engage with challenging children." (Parent of elementary school student)

 

"Thank  you so much for your guidance and help, under your tutelage my daughter has managed to achieve a high standard of writing for her age. This has helped her enormously to gain entry to her first choice middle school." (Parent of elementary school student)

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“My tutor has helped me gain confidence to express myself to people I think of as intellectuals. My friends have noticed a huge improvement in my vocabulary. “ (Adult learner)

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"Great session, great tutor, great everything!!!! Got my confidence back on the subject matter!!!" (Adult learner)

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"Makes learning fun. Her method of learning works for me. I have ADD." (Adult learner)

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"Today's session was very informative. She picked up my pronunciation issues quickly and helped me practice that part during the session." (Adult learner)  

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"It was awesome! I went back to work on my story and we did some talking about Keebler Elves in the beginning. But, in summary, I got a lot done!" (Elementary school student)

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"She is so so so so nice!" (Elementary school student)

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Example Publications

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What’s the Difference Between Return on Expectations and Return on Investment? By Cathy Stawarski

Blog published by the Association for Talent Development (https://www.td.org/insights/whats-the-difference-between-return-on-expectations-and-return-on-investment), October 8, 2012.

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Evaluating mLearning by Cathy Stawarski and Robert Gadd

In Phillips, P. P. (ed) Handbook of Measuring and Evaluating Training. Alexandria: American Society for Training and Development. January 2010

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Data Collection: Planning and Collecting all Types of Data by Patti Phillips and Cathy Stawarski

In Phillips, J. J. & Phillips, P. P. Measurement and Evaluation Series: Comprehensive Tools to Measure the Training and Development Function in your Organization. San Francisco: Pfeiffer-Wiley. · January 2008 

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