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Born to a Jamaican mother and a Kittian father, Lystonia (Toni) always wanted to be a teacher. Her childhood tutor inspired her love for math—making a once complicated subject fun and approachable.

At the urging of her parents, she began college as a pre-nursing student, but after two years, came to the realization that it was not the path for her and she made the difficult decision to put school on hold. It took three more years of working multiple jobs and starting her own tutoring business before she returned to Hunter College to pursue her B.A. in Mathematics. Shortly thereafter, she was accepted into an accelerated program that enabled her to simultaneously earn her Masters in Adolescent Mathematics Education and obtain her teaching license.

As one can imagine, completing two degrees while working four jobs was almost impossible. Her scholarship from St. George’s Society funded the entirety of her final year’s tuition.

“When I went back to school, I was working and commuting a lot just to get by. I had a little help along the way, but St. George’s Society was the saving grace I desperately needed.”

Having graduated in the spring of 2018, she taught sixth grade math, and currently runs her own tutoring company, Play.Math.Grow. Amid all this, she met the love of her life, got married, with whom she has a young daughter.

Of her work, she says:

“I strive to invest in my community members’ collective well-being so that they can use their healthy energy to transform themselves, their families and their communities. I believe that a classroom should never be limited in its exploration—that personal confidence is an integral component of success, that reciprocity at any scale can change the world, and that respect for self and others promotes peace.”