UA student grows tutoring company

RyLeigh Werner, a University of Arkansas student, started a tutoring company last year to help students with their business classes. Werner is director of the student advisory board and program manager in the UA’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (OEI).

In March 2023, Werner started Thrive Tutoring at UARK, and it has eight employees who provide tutoring for UA business classes.

“It’s grown fast,” she said. “It started just with me … and halfway through the semester, I had to hire two people. We all ended up working 20 hours a week by the end of the semester.”

Her business conducts about 50 tutoring sessions weekly. The website is thrivetutoringnwa.org. Werner is a senior at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, majoring in supply chain management and economics. She plans to graduate in May 2025.

Werner said her father is a serial entrepreneur, and she moved here from Dallas. She joined the student advisory board because she wanted to become more involved in OEI. Deb Williams, senior director of student programs and operations at OEI, launched the board that allows students to develop programs and recruit other students interested in entrepreneurship.

“We act as a creative outlet for the needs and desires that we find on the student side of things within OEI,” Werner said. “Because we’re students, I feel like we understand what other students want or need.”

She said that this semester, the board is working to create a community of student entrepreneurs on campus, which is expected to provide a networking opportunity for them.

Werner also manages Pathfinders, a program the student advisory board established that helps to expose students to OEI, recruit them into the community and develop their entrepreneurial spirit. Program participants also plan the capstone event at the end of each semester.

“One of the best things about OEI is they provide so many opportunities for students to get involved and kind of create their own journey within OEI,” she said.

Two years ago, Werner started as a student volunteer at the Heartland Challenge startup competition and currently manages seven student volunteers for the annual OEI event. She said the Heartland Challenge has been “the most inspirational experience I’ve attended, as I saw fellow students achieve the unthinkable, pushing me to achieve more.”