Schools & Tutors in Madison Heights

Aquatic Adventures of Michigan is the joint venture of independent dive instructors Kim D. Parker and Tom Rhoad, who, after years of working with other dive shops, yearned for a place where they could stretch their fins, teach scuba their own way, and bellow sea shanties as loudly as they liked. Today, their PADI Five Star IDC facility is fast approaching its 10-year anniversary, and has grown beyond basic PADI training programs to incorporate everything from underwater digital photography to lessons in deep diving, wreck diving, and night diving. The shop's instructors are fully certified in first aid and emergency oxygen use, and provide factory-authorized service to big-name companies such as Poseidon, Genesis Scuba, and Dive Rite.

On top of offering certified instruction in everything from open-water diving to sea-serpent domestication, the crew supplies fellow divers with quality scuba, snorkeling, and swimming equipment. They also plan exotic expeditions to the Caribbean and tropical Pacific for warm-water dives, and divers looking to stick closer to home can inquire about day trips or weekend getaways to locales such as the Great Lakes or Whitefish Point.

The diver double-checks all her gear before leaving the surefootedness of the boat and falling into the deep water, where she explores shipwrecks and seemingly untouched expanses throughout the Michigan Underwater Preserves in the Great Lakes. The team of PADI- and SSI-certified instructors at Scuba Centers of Michigan helps students prepare for these types of adventures every day, covering advanced topics such as diving at night and how to properly greet a sturgeon. The instructors also start from the beginning, teaching basic open-water diving techniques, which their pupils practice in the onsite heated pool. To complement its courses, the center stocks gear from equipment brands such as McNett, Aqua Lung, and Suunto, and it organizes diving trips to South Africa and Australia.

Part of the venerable Paul Mitchell network, the Salt Lake City school channels its doctrines of style and technique through a squad of students supervised by professional instructors. Inside the school’s 22,000-square-foot facility, beauty-gurus-to-be assuredly snip away during haircuts, each of which includes a five-minute scalp massage, and slather on lactic-acid peels, each of which includes a five-minute memoriam to dead skin cells. Tresses can be smoothed into submission with a flatiron, curled into a hirsute coil, or stylishly swept into an updo. Students complement these many shapes with bold or subtle coloring treatments, sometimes relying on block or dimensional color to add depth.

Paul Mitchell the School trains its students to be citizens of the world as well as ambassadors of beauty. The school sets an example worth following with its eco-friendly practices and support for charitable causes that give back to the local community.

With more than 20 years in business, head coach Lisa Luton-Hodges has seen her share of regional and national equestrian champions. As recently as 2011, she led the Williamston High School equestrian team all the way to a reserve state championship. Luton Training Center is the place where such journeys begin. Riders of all skill levels learn the basics of western, hunt-seat, and saddle-seat techniques amid the splendor of Michigan's rolling hills, or in the 150'x70' indoor arena for when skies are full of rain or the kind of clouds that terrify horses. The facility also offers boarding and training services.

Paula and Lester Crampton draw on more than a quarter century of equestrian experience as they oversee stables at Times Square Riding Academy where competition-ready horses and reliable learning ponies munch on their hay. The academy’s instructors pair students of all skill levels with suitable horses during lessons on the art of English riding, which focuses on hunter and jumper skills, and culminates in the ability to serve high tea while astride. Indoor and outdoor riding arenas let the equestrian experts squeeze in a lesson no matter the weather, and a heated observation room enables parents to watch their children’s class without hiring a dragon to breathe on their hands in the winter.

Inside Excel Academy of Cosmetology’s 8,000-square-foot facility, aspiring aestheticians, manicurists, and cosmetologists staff a 47-station clinic. There, guests can enjoy a number of spa services performed by senior-level students under the supervision of an experienced instructor and Anna Wintour's all-seeing gaze. The Academy is stocked with up-to-date industry equipment and class sizes are small so that senior-level students are amply prepared to treat guests in their area of expertise.