The Brain Trainer Minds Her Own Business
Tonia Chrapko has moved out the classroom, but continues to teach children - as well as teens and adults - the best way to learn
June, 2001
The Commerce News

By Will Gibson

Growing up on Victor Chrapko's farm near Two Hills, you worked hard at school and home. If a problem confronted you, you learned to solve it by yourself.

"He would tell us 'Figure it out,' " says Tonia Chrapko, his eldest daughter and founder of Toolbox Training Educational Services. The forced lessons in troubleshooting, self-reliance and invention have served all his children in good stead. Chrapko's brothers Evan and Shane, the founders of DocSpace Co. Inc., sold their Internet file management and security company for more than $800 million last year. Chrapko initially hadn't thought about going into business. After graduating from the University of Alberta in 1989, Chrapko taught French immersion in Westlock.

"I had thought about going into business for a long time, on and off. I always had this inkling of doing it," she said. "I always had good ideas but I never followed them up. I had thought about using a riverboat as a floating nightclub or casino a long time before the Edmonton Queen started. When I studied in France, I thought about how well a chocolate-chip cookie shop would do over there. When I came back a couple of years later, an American had set up that business." But her quest for learning extended beyond teaching the three Rs. Chrapko experimented with her classroom as a learning environment, splashing different colors and scattering plants around the room to create an atmosphere where children were focused on their studies. "I did my room with full-spectrum light, the closest thing that you can get natural sunlight. Most fluorescent bulbs are either cool white or warm light and they are really irritating," said the 34-year-old Chrapko. "Teachers would come in and say, 'Wow you're room feels so good to be in.' I wanted it to be a place where kids wanted to come and learn." After three years, Chrapko decided to move to Japan, where she spent almost four years teaching English and composition to university-level students.

"I've always been fascinated with the martial arts," said Chrapko, who had studied aikido, a Japanese martial art that also includes training with swords. "When I was going to university, I had always intended to teach overseas at some point in my career." While in Asia, Chrapko also delved into her personal study of the brain and how to unlock its potential. News stories about an Indian yogi who astounded researchers with his ability to control his body temperature and heart beat fascinated her.

"If one person on the face of this earth is capable of doing that, that means that we are all capable of doing it, you, me, everybody in this room. Will we actualize it before we die? Not necessarily, but the human mind can do that," she said. "The brain can learn very fast but we have slowed it down by the way that we are taught." Her interest in the brain led her to return to Canada, where she intended to pursue a career in naturopathic medicine.

A car collision in June 1997 that severely injured her mother caused her to postpone the start of her studies at a college in Oregon, as Chrapko stayed in Edmonton to tend to her mother at her bedside. "I wanted to look after her because I believed she needed good food and I didn't want her eating hospital food," she said. "I prepared meals for her that were organic and wholesome every day."

After her mother recovered, Chrapko decided to take a biochemistry course at the University of Calgary to prepare her naturopathic studies. When she returned to school, however, she saw that some students were struggling and decided to hold a how-to workshop on study skills. "I saw a need for study strategies and learning skills," she said, "so I put these workshops together in my second semester." The response stunned Chrapko, who received many inquiries about her course after the first three-hour workshop. The demand quickly forced her to hold one-day sessions with university students and adult learners.

The new work intrigued Chrapko, who had been accepted at a Toronto school to study naturopathic medicine, because it allowed her to indulge in her life-long passion of learning about the brain. "I was always really interested in the mind and its potential, which is why I had a really strong interest in naturopathic and holistic approaches to health care, with its connection between the mind and healing," she said.

Chrapko decided to put off her studies and concentrate on her fledgling business, a decision applauded by her brothers. "They were supportive and encouraging," she said. "Whenever I needed help or asked for their advice, they were always available to answer any questions even though they were really busy building DocSpace." After starting with university students and adult learners, Chrapko expanded her seminar to include children.

"I realized from a marketing aspect, it would have better to focus on adult and post-secondary learners, because they make the financial decisions about their education. Marketing to parents and kids, I saw a whole lot more problems and issues that would come up, such as parents forcing their kids to attend even if they didn't want to," she said. "But from the perspective of a teacher, you've got to start younger. From 18 and on, they've already got bad habits. By starting younger, they are more natural at learning. They aren't unlearning or relearning at a point when it's harder."

Chrapko also waded into that market with a little apprehension over how her former colleagues would respond to her seminars. "My work is a total complement to public education and a support to teachers," she said. "Students have to start taking ownership of their education just like adults must take ownership of their careers." During her seminars with younger children, Chrapko discovered Toolbox Training's seminar curriculum - from recognizing your best learning style to improving memory to taking more effective notes -also hit home with their parents.

"The parents would say to me 'You know, I thought I was coming here to help my child but I've learned things here that I can apply on the job,' " she said. "A lot of the strategies can be applied beyond the classroom and to the workplace."

With this feedback, Chrapko expanded her marketing horizons to include corporate training and recently was signed up by a Toronto-based high-tech company.

But she believes the workplace - with the new emphasis on upgrading - will become an even bigger market for Toolbox Training. "A lot of people have negative experiences to training and set up mental resistance to learning," she said. "With brain-based learning, once you understand how the brain works, you can save time and do it faster with less effort. With people who have to juggle so much, that's important. What most people study in three hours can actually be learned in a third to half that time."

While Chrapko has not enjoyed the skyrocketing financial success - and blaring media accolades - enjoyed by her famous brothers, Toolbox Training has shown steady growth, doubling annual revenues in each year since Chrapko started her brain training in 1998. Chrapko, who drives a sensible Volvo station wagon, did not shut down her company to take a job with her Lamborghini-driving brothers either.

"My interests are different. I don't have the same interest in technology; my interest is the mind. You have to follow your own passion," she said. "I told the boys after they sold their company that they should come to work for me. I didn't go into business to work for someone else."

Tonia Chrapko is Chief Energizing Officer (CEO) and owner of Toolbox Training. 454 -3361

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