Kendra Newsome moved to the Truckee Meadows from Florida in 2002 to attend the University of Nevada as a graduate student. Her future was wide-open but she knew she wanted to help kids through behavioral based, data-driven science.
Twenty years later, she and her husband Donny, are contributing to the education scene in northern Nevada in a big way. They opened Fit Learning centers in Reno and 25 other locations across the country. Fit Learning is not just an after-school tutor program. It’s more about applying the science of learning to students.
“We are not trained educators. We are behavioral scientists,” Newsome says. "The curriculum is modeled to impact the students we serve. We can move students a grade level in 8-to-10 weeks.”
“We’re about discovering why a student is struggling. Usually that answer lies in their academic history. Our job is to find out what tools and skills are there and what’s missing or not strong enough. For example, multiplying fractions, there are so many skills involved. Our job is to look at all the pieces and parts that go into that. We identify what’s slowing the process or inaccurate and that’s what we target.”
Newsome’s general critique of mainstream education is that it throws kids into an arena and asks them to figure it out as they go. She compared that flawed system to athletics and music, stressing that in those genres we give kids basic skills to start and slowly build on them, rather than asking a beginning athlete to be an all-star or a novice musician to immediately play Beethoven.
In August of 2025, the Newsomes sold their Fit Learning Reno location, but they still sit on its board of directors. They also still manage the Fit Learning national brand. Newsome says a long-time invested and qualified employee made the pitch to buy the Reno venue, admitting if it wasn’t a special fit, she and her husband would likely still be its owners. However, the transition has worked out well and it’s freed up Kendra and Donny to spend more time on a deeper passion.
The dynamic married duo started up a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization – Empower Youth. Its mission is to use the Fit Learning model to give underprivileged students educational opportunities that would not otherwise be available to them. The Foundation’s website says Empower Youth wants to “ensure that all children are being afforded the same opportunities that allow for young minds to development and thrive.”
“We have really started to allocate more time and effort to Empower Youth to broaden our community impact beyond just those individuals who can afford to attend Fit Learning,” Newsome says. “We feel like we’re fighting an uphill battle in trying to really make a difference for kids in schools. Fit Learning is an afterschool program, but with Empower Youth we’re trying to meet kids where they are.”
Newsome points out that Fit Learning works with kids as young as three and with other youths into their high school years and even some into their college careers. She added that the majority of students growing in the curriculum are elementary school age.
“When you have a science-based approach, it’s so incredibly powerful,” Newsome says. "We didn’t invent the science. It’s been here since the 70s. I’m happy about the number of kids we’ve been able to impact and also disappointed we have not been able to impact more.”