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Julie AssafScholar Intern
Born in Damascus, Syria, Julie moved to the United States when she was nine and graduated from Righetti High School in Santa Maria. She is currently a sophomore at the University of Southern California pursuing a career in business. She began tutoring for LoyalTeach as a volunteer during her sophomore year of high school, and also tutored for Righetti's STEM club. At USC, she is tutoring for USC Dornsife’s ReadersPLUS program and plans to continue her community engagement through the Joint Educational Program. |
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Jake BrownTutor
Jake earned degrees from Cuesta College (AA General Studies), Utah State University (BA Marketing, MSS Human Resource Management), and Grand Canyon University (MS Secondary Education). He has devoted much time and effort to promoting youth education and enrichment. His experience includes fifteen years as a teacher in Lompoc, CA; serving on the board of directors of the Lompoc Teen Center; and coaching his own youth track & field club. |
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Natali CamachoAcademic Counselor
Natali is a lifelong learner and a non-traditional student. She began her post-secondary education at Allan Hancock College, transferred, and earned a bachelor of science degree in wildlife, fish and conservation biology from UC Davis. She has worked with students of all ages as a peer tutor in college and at educational non-profits. A believer in empowering her community through promoting equal access to education, Natalie has returned to Allan Hancock College and is now studying art, a decision partly inspired by a quote from a mentor: "How can we encourage students to follow their dreams if we don’t do the same?" |
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jen cruzAcademic Counselor
A non-traditional student and a single mother, Jen returned to college after a seven-year hiatus to earn her B.A. in applied psychology from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles, becoming part of the first generation in her family to earn a college degree. She was a preschool teacher for five years until she transitioned to managing her family’s food service business full-time. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and is elated to be a part of the LoyalTeach community. |
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Ian CummingsProject Director
Before founding LoyalTeach in 2016, Ian worked for over twenty years as a resident faculty member at Midland School, in Los Olivos, CA, where he taught history and English, directed theater, and coached soccer, among other duties. He earned his BA from Stanford University and his MA in educational leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University. |
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LYNDA cummingsDirector of College Counseling/Storyteller
Lynda served as the director of college counseling for eighteen years and taught a non-fiction writing class at Midland School, a boarding high school in Los Olivos, CA. She loves working with teenagers, and few tasks please her more than finding ways to pull a meaningful story out of a jumble of words or reducing 1,200 words to the 650 allowed for the college essay. She earned a BA in English from Stanford University. |
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Rachel DragosTutor
Rachel taught high school science for five years in San Francisco and China. She now coordinates programs that expand opportunities for experiential, hands-on, and relevant science education on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she was born and raised. She earned her BA in chemistry and English from Kenyon College. |
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Lupita EchevarriaScholar Intern
Lupita, who has been a LoyalTeach student since 2019, is our first Scholar Intern. As a student at Paso Robles High School, Lupita earned enough college credit that she was able to earn her associate's degree in early childhood education in just one year at Cuesta College. She then transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she is majoring in interdisciplinary studies and considering minors in psychology and linguistics. During her internship, she is working as a reading tutor for one of our elementary school students. |
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Zoe HolZerTutor
Zoe grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area before enrolling at Santa Barbara City College, where she tutored statistics and math for over four years before transferring to UC Santa Barbara to earn her B.S. in statistics and data science. At UCSB, she participated in a Data Science Fellowship through the Central Coast Data Science Partnership. She is currently pursuing an M.S. in computational science with a data science emphasis at San Diego State University. She hopes to continue to help students thoroughly understand mathematical and statistical concepts |
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ash keenTutor
Ash grew up in Santa Barbara and studied math and physics at Santa Barbara City College. After transferring, they graduated with a BA in mathematics from the College of Creative Studies at the UC Santa Barbara. Ash is a career math tutor with thirteen years of experience in private practice and eight years at the SBCC Math Lab. They work with all levels of students from elementary school students through collegiate math majors. Ash loves to share the beauty of mathematics with students to build their critical thinking and problem solving skills. |
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Sophia LinTutor
Sophia grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied biopsychology at UC Santa Barbara and nursing at Duke University. She is currently working as a cardiac ICU nurse. In the past, she has tutored in high school biology, chemistry, and elementary school English. Her favorite subjects in school were biology, anatomy, and physiology, and she loves working with students of all ages. |
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Irvin MartinTutor
After graduating from Whitworth University with a BA in business management and a minor in French, Irvin turned to teaching. He has worked in both independent and public schools in the US and abroad, including teaching in China for six years before joining Acorn Village Forest School as its lead kindergarten teacher. He is excited for the opportunity to support and advise LoyalTeach students in their academic journeys. |
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Alex RoethlerTutor
Alex earned his BS in physics education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his MA in curriculum and instruction from the University of Alabama. He taught for three years at Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia, and now teaches in Madison, WI. He has experience teaching AP Physics, Medical Physics, and Astronomy, and provides remote tutoring to LoyalTeach students in math and physics. |
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Yesenia Beas RamirezVolunteer Consultant
Yesenia was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; grew up in Guadalupe, California; and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in higher education counseling and student affairs. She is an academic advisor in the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly, where she also oversees the Multicultural Business Program and lectures in professional and personal development classes. She is passionate about helping students reach higher education with a focus on serving students who are historically underrepresented, marginalized, and traditionally underserved in our community. |
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Mary FahningVolunteer tutor
Mary earned her BS from University of Florida and her MBS, with a focus on environmental physiology, from Florida Atlantic University. Her teaching background includes time spent as a SCUBA/underwater cave instructor in the Bahamas, where she also ran an out-island fishing resort. She spent fourteen years teaching AP Physics, AP Chemistry, precalculus, and biology at Midland School in Los Olivos, CA. After retiring as upper school director at Highland School in Warrenton, VA, she spent several years teaching biology and environmental science at Allan Hancock College. When she's not tutoring, she's probably out hiking on the CDT or other wilderness trails. |
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Don RedlVolunteer tutor
Don taught math and economics courses, many at the AP-level, for twenty-two years at schools in the U.S., Colombia, and China. He enjoys using real-world connections to help students find the relevance and wonder in math and to build confidence in their problem-solving abilities. He earned his BA from Harvard University and his MA from Princeton University. |
