Port Washington resident Marina Tourevski opened the first Long Island location of the nation’s award-winning franchise, College Nannies and Tutors, this past June, and is now looking to expand her business from college students to everyone. As the holidays approach, Tourevski thought it would be the perfect time to begin expanding her sitters, or as she likes to call them, role models, to all age groups.
“While most of our employees are college students, we hire a diverse group of highly qualified caregivers—baby boomers, empty nesters, semi-retired and adults in career transition,” said Tourevski. “We value the experience and expertise of older workers. We welcome them.”
“We think that seniors make great caregivers,” added Family Placement Manager Valerie Marshall. “Even though we specialize in placing college students as sitters, we strive to have a diverse workforce and that includes hiring baby boomers and beyond because we are confident they have a lot to offer families and the younger workforce. They can teach the next generation. With the holidays around the corner, we thought it would be a good time to reach out to seasoned workers who can be role models for our role models.”
Tourevski feels that the holidays were the perfect time to expand because residents can pick up a few extra dollars for holiday gifts by doing occasional babysitting jobs.
“If you’re a grandmother and you only see your grandchildren occasionally, maybe you can make a little extra money with someone else’s grandchildren,” said Marshall. “You can be a professional grandma.”
The company accepts long-term, short-term and on-call assignments to care for children of all age groups, from infants, to tots, to teens.
“Our company is geared to meet the demands of today’s fast-paced, ever-changing modern family life,” said Tourevski. “Once the families become our private clients, they immediately have access to our database of pre-screened and trained role models. They can look for the ones who meet their criteria, check that caregiver’s profile, availability and book them. They can do it from the comfort of their beds.”
Tourevski holds an undergraduate degree in psychology with honors from Fordham University. She also holds a master’s in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. For the past 15 years, she served as the Senior Associate Director of the Finance and Economics Department, Columbia Business School.
