With $8.5 Million in Funding, Education Technology Company YouScience's Biggest Value Proposition - Empowering Students to Take Charge of Their Educational and Career Outcomes

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- YouScience, ready to be seen as a trailblazer in the research and education space, exits beta and officially launches in two weeks, seeking to help consumers optimize their career and educational investments by delivering the best practices and market-leading EdTech tools directly to consumers and the professionals that serve them.

The startup, jointly founded by career development expert Betsy Wills and entrepreneur Richard Patton, today announces the completion of its seed round of funding to fuel the development of its initial consumer product, Latitude. To date, the company has received $8.5 million from mission-oriented individuals, institutions and organizations such as LaunchTN. Together, with Healtheon/WebMD veteran Philip Hardin as CEO, they have designed Latitude to be the next generation online career discovery platform to assist young people in identifying their ideal career fit and the educational path to achieve it.

"Current educational and career discovery resources lack the integration of valid natural-abilities assessments, interests, and career and educational discovery," says Betsy Wills, YouScience co-founder. "Latitude provides families and students with the market-leading resources to find their true career fit and the path to achieve it. This is career planning 2.0."

Armed with forward-looking tools built on 90 years of validated science, YouScience developed Latitude as a solution to assist young people in making the transition from dependent adolescents to successful adults by leveraging and cultivating unique abilities. The fully integrated, online career discovery platform uses real mental exercises—not merely self-reported data—to uniquely align both aptitudes and interests, reveal true strengths and identify ideal post-secondary education majors and the best career choices.

"With tuition rates quickly outpacing inflation rates and a tepid employment market, it is more important now than ever for students to carefully direct their post-secondary education," says Philip Hardin, CEO of YouScience. "Through Latitude, we intend to help young people become productive, independent adults in the careers they choose."

Launching in late June 2014, Latitude will be available directly to consumers and through secondary schools, education consultants, career counselors and universities.  In 2015, YouScience will expand the market for Latitude beyond young adults to career changers, returning military and anyone needing career and educational guidance.

About YouScience
YouScience LLC helps young adults to successfully make the transition from high school to post-secondary to career. The company created Latitude, an online platform that combines aptitude and interest assessments with a patent pending career and education recommendation process.  Sold directly to consumers and the educational professionals who serve them, Latitude assists families and students find their true career fit. Founded in 2012, YouScience is a private company and headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., with offices in Dallas. For further information on YouScience and Latitude, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or visit www.mylatitude.com.

SOURCE YouScience