Need Home Financing? Check With The Experts At Marimark Mortgage

Mary Catchur of Marimark Mortgage takes the worry out of having to get a mortgage.

Getting a mortgage for a new home – or refinancing your current one — can seem daunting and overwhelming, especially if you’re dialing toll-free numbers at big banks and aren’t quite sure what you’re getting yourself into.

Fortunately, there’s an option where you have the same access to financial products, but can work with experts who are right here in New Tampa. At Marimark Mortgage, which has been located in the Tampa Palms Professional Center off Commerce Park Blvd. since it opened in 2006, the staff will help you through the process every step of the way.

“We all have the same products and very similar rates,” says Marimark Mortgage owner Mary Catchur. “What differentiates me and my business is our level of service and our commitment to educating the homebuyer.”

Mary is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who spent 13 years as an auditor for KPMG (Klynveld, Peat, Marwick & Goerdeler), one of the “Big Four” U.S. public accounting firms which was founded in The Netherlands. Then, she was the chief financial officer for an internet-based real estate company, in which she established a mortgage division.

Her current clients benefit from this broad financial background, as Mary applies her skills and experience to assist loan applicants, reviewing each client’s financial status and advising them about loans that make sense for their individual situations.

Mary says that many of her clients come to her after previously being disappointed with other mortgage companies. With special circumstances such as being self-employed, or retired and living off of assets, other companies may not know how to structure a loan.

“They don’t have the financial background to understand,” she says. “I understand financial issues, such as ways to give [retired clients] an income stream based on their assets, but someone who doesn’t have a financial background wouldn’t know how to navigate that process.”

Marimark offers a complete line of financing options, such as conventional loans, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans and loans through the Veterans Administration (VA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Mary is a Pennsylvania native who grew up helping out at her family’s electrical business, but she has called Tampa home since 1979. She earned her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degrees in Accounting and French from the University of South Florida (USF) and currently maintains her mortgage broker’s license in Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

“With today’s technology, you don’t need to be located in the same area to do business,” Mary explains, adding that she serves many clients outside of Florida, many of whom find her on the internet.

“It’s always best to shop around and remember that your bank is not your only choice for a mortgage.”

Unparalleled Customer Service

There are other reasons why Mary’s clients say she stands out among other companies in the business, and Mary encourages anyone interested in looking for financing for their home to Google “Marimark Mortgage.” She says you’ll get a good picture of what it’s like to work with Marimark from the company’s reviews.

One common theme is that her customer service is top notch.

Karla Folstad is a local Realtor with Easy Street Realty who regularly refers clients to Marimark. “Mary is one of my go-to lenders, she says. “She is an unbelievable service provider and has worked miracles for a couple of my clients when another lender has dropped the ball.”

For example, she says that recently, a large bank told her clients there was no way to close a deal in 25 days, but Karla referred them to Marimark, and Mary said she could get it done. “That bank said, ‘If someone told you they can get this deal closed sooner than us, they’re a liar,’” Karla recalls.

As it turned out, the loan was rushed and approved so quickly, Karla says her clients could have closed five days sooner than they needed to.

“She’s so professional and so on top of things, and I enjoy working with her a lot,” says Karla of Mary. “I know when I send clients to her they’re going to close.”

Sally Rosfeld moved to New Tampa last year and she says she was, “amazed at the amount of personal service. Usually, getting a mortgage is really stressful, but this is the easiest time we’ve ever had getting a mortgage. There was no stress. Mary paid attention to every deal and took all the pressure off of us.”

She adds, “It was like working with a friend. I would recommend her to anyone.”

“My approach is straightforward and educational,” Mary says. “When I got into the business, I saw a real need to educate people so they know why the product they’re getting is better for them.”

Mary says she shouldn’t be the one choosing a product for a client, but it’s important for her clients to be fully educated about their loan product. For example, maybe you’ve been offered a low rate, but do you know what fees you have to pay to get that rate?

“Maybe the most important thing to you is getting the lowest possible payment, or maybe it’s paying the least amount of money over the life of the loan, but we need to talk about your entire scenario and what your goals and needs are,” she explains.

Mary also is proud that Marimark offers a streamlined, efficient process, with great communication. She uses technology to her clients’ and her company’s advantage, such as, for example, automatic notifications every step of the process.

“It sounds so simple, but we communicate with people,” Mary says. “We communicate with all parties — of course the buyer and the title company, but also the seller’s Realtor and the buyer’s Realtor and the appraisal management company. When the processor moves on the file, like if she clicks that she ordered the appraisal, the notice goes to everybody.” 

Marimark Mortgage is located at 5327 Primrose Lake Cir. For more information, visit MarimarkMortgage.com, call (813) 910-8020, or see the ad on page 46.

Local Schools Produce Award Winners

Clark Teacher Named Hillsborough’s Reading Teacher Of The Year!

The Hillsborough County Literacy Association (HCLA) has named Christy Gupta its Reading Teacher of the Year for all Hillsborough County schools.
Gupta is a fifth grade teacher at Clark Elementary in West Meadows, teaching English Language Arts (ELA). She was nominated for the award by the school’s principal, Paulette English, and assistant principal, Nicole Libby.

English says that Gupta is an engaging and dynamic teacher who supports many students outside of her classroom with school-wide programs, such as online Twitter book studies with other teachers.

In class, English says Gupta is creative and motivating, such as when she recently turned her classroom into an operating room to teach her students about “text features” using a “surgery” theme.

“We see that in the early grades a lot,” says English, “but we don’t always see teachers as engaging and making learning fun at the fifth grade level.”

New Tampa Schools Take Home PTA Prizes

Congratulations to the local schools, staff, parents and students who have received awards from the Hillsborough County Council Parent Teacher Association (PTA) for outstanding programs and efforts at their schools during the 2017-18 school year. Of 42 awards given throughout the county in elementary, middle, and high school divisions, 10 were taken home by New Tampa schools, including:

Elementary Schools:
• Education: Hunter’s Green Elementary, SMART Super Heroes

Middle Schools:
• Advocacy: Benito Middle School, Junior Blue Crew
• Family Involvement: Benito Middle School, School Beautification
• Health & Safety: Benito Middle School, Red Ribbon Week
• Local Unit Instructional: Liberty Middle School, Brendan Paul
• Local Unit Non-Instructional: Benito Middle School, Sharon Hineline
• Principal of the Year: Liberty Middle School, James Ammirati

High Schools:
• Outstanding High School Senior: Wharton High, Rachel Hineline
• PTSA President of the Year: Freedom High, Jeanine Ernst
• Volunteer of the Year: Wharton High, Michele Echols

Freedom Student Wins
‘All In For CF’ Scholarship
Freedom High senior Kira Taylor is one of 80 people nationwide to be awarded an “All In For CF” college scholarship for the upcoming academic year.
The $5,000 scholarship was awarded by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Kira is a gifted musician and community activist,” said a Vertex representative. “She also happens to be living with cystic fibrosis.”
Kira will attend Hillsborough Community College this fall and is working toward an Associate of Arts degree. She then hopes to pursue a career in special education.

Wharton Turns To A Familiar Face By Hiring New Principal Mike Rowan

A change in leadership at New Tampa’s Wharton High is bringing in a familiar face back to the school.

Mike Rowan (photo), who currently is the principal at King High on N. 56th St., will take over as principal at Wharton on July 1.
While he’ll have some headaches to deal with, as he tries to repair Wharton’s reputation in the community, one thing will be much easier for him — the commute.
Rowan lives in Pebble Creek, just across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the school. His daughter, Delaney, graduates from Wharton this spring.

Not only is Rowan a community member and parent, he also is a former teacher and administrator at Wharton. He was a social studies teacher and soccer coach when the school opened in 1997. Then, in 2006, he was named assistant principal for administration (APA) at Wharton. He served in that capacity for five years before being named the principal at King.

“I’m excited,” says Rowan, who acknowledges he will be facing some challenges at the school, including a negative perception about Wharton. However, he says, “there are a lot of community members — parents, kids and faculty — who want to get rid of that perception. The biggest asset that Wharton has going for it is that all of the people involved – parents, kids, teachers and the community — want (the school) to be successful.”

He says he is looking forward to using his experiences as a Wharton parent, community member, teacher and administrator to make sure, “we are all on the same page, going in the same direction.”

Rowan replaces current Wharton principal Brad Woods, who has been in that role since 2008. Woods announced his resignation to school families on April 12, effective at the end of the current school year. He will move to a position in the human resources department at Hillsborough County Public Schools, as the manager of services and support.

The appointments were made official at the Hillsborough Public Schools School Board meeting on May 1.

Congratulations To Freedom High’s Class of 2018 Valedictorian & Salutatorian


Catherine Weng says she’s never been interviewed before. She has, however, conducted plenty of interviews, as the editor of Freedom’s school newspaper, Revolution.

That’s far from her only role, however. The Class of 2018 Freedom High valedictorian is the definition of well-rounded.

She loves to dance and has studied at the Jansen Dance Project in Tampa Palms since middle school. She’s president of Freedom’s math honor society, Mu Alpha Theta, and has participated in competitions for that club since she was a freshman. She’s also the president of a club she created at Freedom for students who want to learn American Sign Language. Catherine also says she loves to bake, especially cookies and birthday cakes. Oh, and she has a part-time job as a tutor.

Catherine has finished her high school career with an impressive GPA of 8.9. She boosted her GPA well above a “perfect” 4.0 with a combination of honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and dual enrollment (DE) classes, which varied from computer programming classes to astronomy, to American Sign Language, which she really enjoys and isn’t offered at Freedom.

She says she got her first B this year in AP Spanish, where the challenge of being the only non-native speaker has made it hard to understand the wide variety of accents and vocabulary among those in her class. But, she says she doesn’t regret the hard class, “I really like linguistics,” she says. “I speak English and Chinese at home.”

Catherine is part of a large, blended family, and she says she’s especially close to her older sister Diana, who has earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Florida in Gainesville. Diana is still a student at UF, now working toward her Ph.D. in Accounting.

Knowing Catherine’s love of baking, Diana tried to sweeten the deal to get her sister to choose her school.

“She promised me a stand mixer if I came to UF,” Catherine laughs.

Despite exploring options as far away as New York and Seattle, Catherine ultimately decided to join her sister at Florida. She is a Bright Futures scholarship recipient, National Merit Scholarship finalist and a recipient of the Benacquisto Scholarship, which provides incentives for high- achieving students to go to a state university in Florida.

“I have such a good opportunity at UF,” she says. “I’m proud to say I’m a Gator.”

Given Catherine’s love for such a broad range of activities, it shouldn’t be surprising that she hasn’t quite nailed down what she’ll major in at UF. She’ll be in UF’s Honor College, and says she’ll most likely be a business major.

As Catherine leaves high school, she says she will take with her a philosophy to try to absorb the best things from the people around her.

“I’ve made a lot of amazing friends,” she says. “They have different skilIs and virtues and amazing things about them. I don’t know if I just got lucky to be at Freedom or if people are amazing everywhere.”

She’s about to find out about the people in Gainesville, at least.

“I’m happy to go to a ridiculously big school,” she says. “I’ll never run out of people to meet or things to do.”

Salutatorian Alejandro Michel
Freedom’s Salutatorian is Alejandro Michel, who had a GPA of 8.8. Alejandro also is a well-rounded student, who has excelled in both academics and athletics.

On Saturday, May 4, Alejandro graduated from Hillsborough Community College in the morning, after earning enough credits through dual enrollment classes — while a student at Freedom — to receive his Associate of Arts (AA) degree.

After the ceremony, he traveled to Jacksonville for the Florida Class 4A High School Track & Field State Championships, qualifying this year for the first time. He is primarily a cross country runner, but found success running track this spring, as he moved on from excellent finishes at the District and Regional meets to run in the State meet, too.

Before attending Freedom, both Alejandro and Catherine attended Liberty Middle School and before that, both attended Chiles Elementary, also in Tampa Palms, since kindergarten.

They have something else in common, too. As Alejandro heads off to Florida State University in Tallahassee, he is choosing to go to school with his brother, Max, who graduated from Middleton High and HCC this spring, as well.

“We plan to have our own apartment together, close enough to ride a bike to campus,” Alejandro says. “I’ve been riding my bike to school since Chiles and I want to keep doing that.”

Alejandro says he has two main loves — running and math. At FSU, he plans to major in statistics and minor in computer science. He is on an accelerated track so that he will finish both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in just three years.

He says for his junior and senior year, he’s taken three math classes every semester, including AP Statistics, AP Calculus A/B and B/C, Calculus II and III and others. This year, he needed one more class at Freedom to keep his full-time status, so he chose Honors Trigonometry. “The teacher knows the level of math I have and lets me teach the class sometimes,” he says.

Alejandro intends to become an actuary — a mathematician who specializes in risk and probability. “Really, I would have loved to be a math teacher or professor,” he says, “but there’s a work/life balance you can get with being an actuary, working only 40 hours a week.”

He thinks that will leave him with enough time and financial stability to also pursue a career as a professional runner, with the flexibility to continue to train and run.

He says that on his journey so far, he’s learned about pursuing his passion and how that leads to success.

“Do you just want to be successful, or do you really enjoy waking up every day and getting out there and having a runner’s high?,” he asks. “You have to love the process, not just the idea of being successful.”

Sylvan Learning Center Offers Successful Approach

At the Sylvan Learning Center in Wesley Chapel, (l.-r.) assistant director Kristi Chatham, director Lara Riordan, director of education Caitlyn Hussey and owner Dr. Judy Johnson tailor lessons, taught by certified teachers, to each student’s individual academic needs.

Dr. Judy Johnson brought Sylvan Learning to the Tampa Bay area more than three decades ago, when she opened her first Sylvan Learning Center in Carrollwood in 1985.

Her students from 30 years ago now bring their children — or those who brought their kids now bring grandchildren — telling Dr. Johnson they remember how much it helped them, and how much they enjoyed their time at the center.

Over the years, the success of the program has led to expansion locally, and Dr. Johnson opened her fifth Bay-area center this past October. The newest location is here in Wesley Chapel, in the Summergate Professional Center in Seven Oaks, off of S.R. 56, behind Sam’s Club.

Her Bay-area locations, which also include Carrollwood, Westchase, Temple Terrace and Zephyrhills, are among the more than 750 Sylvan Learning Centers worldwide.

Dr. Johnson is a lifelong educator who holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Special Education from the University of South Florida in Tampa, which she received in 1995. Previously, she completed a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Counseling from Ball State University in Muncie, IN, in 1977 and a Master of Education (M.E.) degree in Biology from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1971.

Since the Wesley Chapel center opened last fall, Kristi Chatham has served as its director. She has been with Sylvan for three years, and previously was at the Zephyrhills location and prior to that, worked as an instructor at a Sylvan Learning Center in Alabama.

“I like it because I know it works,” Kristi says. “I’ve seen it.”

As of May 1, Kristi took a step back to be the assistant director of the center, allowing her to spend more time with her family. Lara Riordan is now the new director. Lara has been the director of the Temple Terrace center since 2005. She started with Sylvan as an instructor in New York in 2000.

A Proven Model

The Sylvan model means students have a maximum ratio of three students to one teacher, so they’re never in large groups where they can be overlooked. Students come to Sylvan to get ahead, for extra practice, for test preparation or whatever they need.

“We’re not tutors fixing one skill for one test,” explains Lara. We are a solution for all (of your child’s) academic needs.”

“We’re not just for remediation,” adds Dr. Johnson, “We work with accelerated kids – kids who want to go to Harvard.”

Sylvan Learning Centers are staffed by certified teachers who receive additional training in the Sylvan program. They then teach students lessons, which vary based on the child and are flexible for each individual student. The Wesley Chapel location currently has about 10 teachers on staff, including the director, assistant director and director of education Caitlyn Hussey.

“I still teach,” Dr. Johnson says. “It’s a good way to see what’s going on and meet with families.”

Sylvan’s program starts with a diagnostic assessment, then the teacher creates a “prescription” for the student, to ensure lessons are properly tailored to each individual’s needs.

“All of us have a knowledge base,” explains Dr. Johnson. “When we go to school, we have to sit through things we already know.” Sylvan is different, she adds. “We find out what a child knows. We figure out where they’re strong and weak.”

Then, she explains the child is taught “on the edges of where they need to be,” so the lesson is neither boring nor too hard.

“The programs are as individualized as they need to be,” explains Caitlin. “My challenge is to ensure that each program is sufficiently challenging to meet each student’s needs.”

As an endorsement of Sylvan Learning Center, Dr. Johnson shares that recently, an investor traveled from China to the U.S. to evaluate all of the different learning center companies, doing an extensive investigation before making his investment in education in China.  The result of his research? “He bought 200 Sylvan Learning Center franchises,” Dr. Johnson says.

Here in Wesley Chapel, Nicole Buzard has been bringing her son, Carter, to Sylvan twice a week for the last couple of months and says, “It’s been all positives so far.”

Carter is a gifted student who is at the top of his class, so Nicole says his teacher recommended advanced skills.

“I tried working with him at home,” she says, “but I didn’t feel structured enough.” She says once Carter mastered one skill, she didn’t immediately know the next skill he should work on.

“I was looking for enrichment and it led me to Sylvan,” says Nicole. “He enjoys the extra math work. He’s excited, and I never have to force it.”

Nicole says her son’s enthusiasm for attending Sylvan is rubbing off on her 10-year-old daughter, Ava, too.

“She’s not one who would want to do extra schoolwork, so I didn’t really explore it as an option for her,” Nicole explains. “But, she has seen how excited my son is, and now she wants to go.”

Nicole says the office staff is easy to work with and flexible to meet her needs and schedule. She says the Wesley Chapel Sylvan Learning Center is a quality program.

“They know what they’re doing and — even with my son already being good at math –— I’ve seen improvements.”

While many people believe these learning center programs are expensive, the Sylvan staff says they are happy to work with families to make it affordable. “We offer different programs at different price points, with budget-friendly programs,” explains Dr. Johnson

“It’s a really good option for an extracurricular activity,” she adds. “Kids enjoy intellectual stimulation and learning things they don’t usually learn in a typical education setting.”

Sylvan Learning Center will offer STEM camps this summer, including robotics, engineering, coding, LEGO, writing, MATH and ACT/SAT prep. Most camps run Monday through Thursday in the morning or afternoon.

The Sylvan Learning Center at Seven Oaks is located at 27724 Cashford Cir., #102. Business hours for the center are Mon.–Thurs., 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m., Fri. by appointment only and Saturday, 9 a.m.–noon. Teaching hours vary based on the day and will be different in the summer. For details, call (800) EDU-CATE, visit Educate.com, or see the ad on page 36.