Community Service
and food to hospital staff. We went to Walmart and gave it to the staff working there too. We went to nursing homes. And that was a beautiful thing to do.”
Generating goodwill
Karen and Libby Lossing, a mother-daughter pair, consider themselves lucky to be able to see and hear stories of the transformations they facilitate at the 18 Mathnasium locations the family owns. But it’s special when it’s a scholarship student who attends the sessions at no charge because the family can’t afford the cost of tutoring services. They shared the story of a fourth grader whose mother lobbied until he got one of the scholarships. “He came with a good spirit. He just didn’t have a lot of skills,” Karen Lossing says. “It started out as remedial. He couldn’t do anything. Then, he just became just an absolute rock star. He’s probably two, three years ahead of grade level now. I look at it as, if we can keep him ahead of grade level, he’ll hopefully earn a college scholarship.” Their learning centers in San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, and Cincinnati produce similar stories. The math-learning franchise provides instruction for students ranging from prekindergarten to high school. “We’ve seen younger kids who were just completely failing in math. In Colorado, we had some eighth graders performing on a third-grade level,” says Karen Lossing, a former teacher and school administrator. “After scholarships were given, they were able to gain two years of growth within six, seven months. And it was life changing to them because they’re not walking around counting on their fingers about to enter high school.” She says that few things feel better than watching a former F-student skip into the center to excitedly show off the B they earned.
it’s very results oriented. Multiple times a day, every single day, there are just success stories and happy parents and happy kids, and you’re alleviating a lot of stress in the home whenever kids are seeing success in school and starting to feel smart and starting to develop a growth mindset.” Libby Lossing is in charge of community outreach. The Lossings and the staff at their learning centers are active in schools, taking part in Math Nights, STEM Nights, and International Nights. They set up booths at career fairs and help students prepare for job interviews. They judge science fairs and provide tutoring for foster kids. On and on it goes.
Multi-Unit Franchisee Lightbridge Academy
At their learning centers, roughly 5% of customers are on scholarships. The Lossings work with the school systems to find students in need, usually those who participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program. The family doesn’t shine spotlights on their scholarship students or the students who come to them from foster care. They want to protect their privacy.
kindergarten basketball. He’s on the Business Council of Westchester’s Rising Stars Leadership Council.
“Everyone just assumes everyone is there under the same circumstances, all paying the same,” Karen Lossing says. “The last thing we want to do is have somebody know that another kid is on free or reduced-price lunch.” But that doesn’t mean their outreach isn’t generating goodwill. “Schools are a great referral source for us,” Libby Lossing says. “So maybe a teacher recommended their free and reduced-lunch students for a scholarship, but then they also know that there are other students of different means who also need tutoring and are able to pay.
The Lossings are a family of four, including Karen’s husband, Steve, and son, Evan. All share ownership of the Mathnasium units. Karen and Steve purchased the first one near San Diego in 2013 when Libby was in college.
“And, of course, a Google review is a Google review, and it’s not like there’s any asterisk saying that this isn’t a paying customer. A positive word about our business is great, no matter who it comes from.”
“Then I came to love it in my own right,” Libby Lossing says. “It’s really easy to love something when
No one has to sell Mark Mathias on the importance of community involvement. He grew up in Westchester County, New York, and that’s where he’s raising his family. That’s also where he opened his first Lightbridge Academy in Scarsdale in January 2023.
Investing time
A second Lightbridge Academy, a franchise that focuses on early childhood education, is under construction six miles up the road in Valhalla. He hopes to start construction on a third in nearby Rockland County next year.
Karen and Libby Lossing Multi-Unit Franchisees Mathnasium
92 | Multi-Unit Franchisee | Issue 1, 2025
Mark Mathias
“What started off one way has gone in many directions based on one organization hearing about us and then another one reaching out,” Karen Lossing says.
He wants to invest his money and his time in the community. He’s chairman of Scarsdale’s Advisory Council on Youth and on the board of directors of the Child Care Council of Westchester. He coaches Little League baseball as well as third-grade and
“It’s really important for me to be involved in the communities that we serve, not to just run the businesses,” he says. “I have personal connections to each one of the towns that we are opening businesses in.” Even if he had opened his businesses somewhere he didn’t have personal connections, Mathias says he’d still gravitate toward community service. “It just feels natural to me to want to be involved in communities, to understand the neighbors and community members that we’re serving with our childcare centers,” he says. One of the primary reasons Mathias chose to become a Lightbridge franchisee is because the brand shares his philosophy. “Lightbridge Academy has always done a fantastic job with their circle-of-care mentality,” he says. “Bringing together children, families, the teachers, the owners, and the community really does encapsulate how franchisees can get involved with communities and prioritize relationships.” A business owner’s role can’t be summed up in dollars and cents. “I feel like so many times there are different perspectives on what being a franchisee is and what it isn’t,” Mathias says. “Sometimes, franchisees come in thinking it’s just a cookie-cutter operation. But being involved with the communities that you serve is such an important part of being a franchisee. I think that’s overlooked a lot. It’s something that maybe I undervalued when I started. Now, I realize it’s really my primary role as a franchisee.”