Julia is a Senior at Northwestern University, studying Learning and Organizational change, Entrepreneurship, and Legal Studies. While seemingly diverse, all three programs empower Julia to analyze and solve organizational problems across contexts. Outside of the classroom, this is Julia’s second year as the President of Northwestern’s Undergraduate Real Estate Club. Growing up in New York City, Julia was always infatuated with the Real Estate industry. At school in Chicago, she has loved getting to learn about the incredible architecture and fascinating history of her new home. Additionally, Julia is a member of Northwestern University’s Association for Women in Sports Media. She was able to combine her love of Organizational Studies with her passion for Sports Media when she interned at the Creative Artist Agency (CAA) as a Brand Consulting Intern in the Sports & Entertainment Advisory Group this past summer. Currently Julia is serving as the Teaching Assistant for one of her favorite courses: “Innovate for Impact” -- a social impact entrepreneurship course. In her free time, Julia loves cooking, running, and playing board games.

Spencer is a student from London, UK, at Brown University studying Business & Entrepreneurship with a focus on Biotech/Biochemistry Management. Having founded and worked within a variety of tech startups, he has a strong passion for innovation and a keen eye for business. At Brown, Spencer is the co-founder of the university’s new Startup Accelerator organisation, in which he facilitates the formation of startup teams across the campus and leads a program to help develop the young organisations. His ability in this field has come from his long involvement with Science Creates Incubators, a leading biotech and sciences incubator in the UK. He is currently working in a data analytics role for Hearby, a music technology startup, and as an innovation analyst at The Nature Conservancy. Alongside his studies, he is an avid musician, songwriter and music teacher. As well as writing and performing his own music in concert venues, he frequently works with up-and-coming artists co-writing songs and creating the musical arrangements for both performances and recordings. With this passion, he founded the Brown University songwriting society, where he helps students to develop their skills as songwriters and artists. Alongside this, he loves to play soccer in his free time, having played on the ISFA National Youth team in London and currently plays with the Brown Men’s Club Soccer team. Spencer is an energetic and motivated teacher and is very excited to be able to teach entrepreneurship, music, math, biology, and chemistry at Curious Cardinals!

Berfin is a recent graduate of Minerva University - with a double major in data science and economics. She is passionate to work at the intersection of data and economics to promote evidence-based policymaking. Additionally, she is fascinated by photography and has been working on various photography-related side projects.

Sunrit is a student at Princeton University studying Operations Research and Financial Engineering. For over a decade, he has practiced Hindustani Vocal Classical music with performances on TV, radio, and across the world. He is also a 2nd degree black belt Taekwondo instructor and competitor, currently competing in the ECTC Conference and USAT Circuit. He spent summer 2021 as the general manager of his local Taekwondo center where he succeeded in revitalizing the business and doubling revenue. During his first-year winter, he is lead market research and beta testing as a product intern for Plexus, a seed startup. For first-year spring, he was management intern on the corporate partnerships team of Scholars of Finance (SOF), a national organization that supports a generation of ethical finance professionals. During the summer of 2022, Sunrit was promoted to Associate at SOF and directly manages partnerships with Morgan Stanley and SoFi. This summer, building on a vested interest in the environment, he is simultaneously doing conservation work on the rural island of Moloka'i in Hawai'i through Princeton's Programs in Civic Service. In high school, Sunrit founded and led the iSTEM and TEDx clubs. Through iSTEM club he created STEM-based community service initiatives funded by a $750 yearly STEM education grant. He is also leading a $4,250 IEEE-in-epics grant project to bring clean drinking water to a drought-stricken village in rural West Bengal. With TEDx, Sunrit worked with 15 speakers to host two conferences in fields ranging from theatre to medical research to civil engineering. Details of these initiatives are published in three poster papers in the proceedings of the IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference. Sunrit also has diverse experiences in the world of science and healthcare. His commitment to mental health motivated him to found COVIDTeenline, a peer-counseling textline that worked with numerous teens in 7 countries during the pandemic. Through this textline, he worked with youth leaders in the UK to sent a petition for mental heath service funding to UK parliament. He also conducted caloric restriction and Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 oncology research at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He will be included as an author on a review paper and national conference poster to be published soon. Finally, bridging his interests in health care and English literature, he gave an oral presentation at the University of Pittsburgh Humanities in Healthcare conference, the abstract of which is published on HealthPivot.org. During the college applications process, these activities earned him a conditional acceptance to medical school. Building off of his past experience as a college admissions consultant and English literature tutor, Sunrit cannot wait to work on passion projects and tutor subjects that bridge the realms of science, healthcare, finance, the humanities, and more.

Shane is a rising junior at Harvard studying cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology with a secondary in economics. His experience in entrepreneurship ranges from selling his first company as a sophomore in high school to an award-winning robotics startup in college. He is a licensed snowboard instructor, certified CrossFit trainer, and a real estate agent with $1M+ in sales. While still in high school, he was published in a historical review for his work on the history of naval warfare. During his gap year, he worked for a construction consultant in Bogotá, Colombia, taught snowboarding in Hokkaido, Japan, and ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Passionate about national service, Shane has consulted for 3 different branches of the U.S. Department of Defense. He wrestles on Harvard's varsity team, and if the weather isn't too nice, you might find him studying.

Fara is pursuing Science, Technology and Society with a minor in African Studies at Stanford University. Fara started a non profit organisation called STEM in Africa (SIA) in 2020. SIA works to encourage young African students, primarily females, to go into STEM education and to use innovation to solve everyday issues. Over the past year SIA has raised a total of $20k to support young Africans in STEM learning and innovative programmes. The next step for SIA is building a sustainable science hub in Lagos for students to research, build and scale. Fara's passion lies within reforming the education sector around Africa. Fara also plays lacrosse and DJ's. She is interested in also working in the entertainment sector, empowering young female creatives. Fara also loves to travel and hopes to travel the world one day !

Adelaide is a recent graduate from Brown University where she completed her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology. Before Brown, she studied at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and developed skills in visual art and drawing. These skills further evolved in her undergraduate studies through courses at the Rhode Island School of Design. With passions for visual art and environmental science, Adelaide combined these interests in courses and studies on scientific communication and graduated from Brown with honors on her thesis project in Marine Ecology. Adelaide spent time at Brown working with the Marine Biology lab on campus, studied abroad for six months in New Zealand, and served as co-captain for the Brown Women’s Rowing team. Her diversity of interests allows her to bring a unique perspective to each platform and helps to highlight the importance of pursuing your passions. As a mentor at Curious Cardinals, Adelaide hopes to encourage students to explore and discover their own passions, developing skills to carry them through all aspects of life and learning!

Clyde is a Junior at Georgetown University, studying business operations and data analytics with minors in computer science and entrepreneurship. Outside the classroom, Clyde leads the operations of The Midnight MUG, a coffee shop part of the largest student run business in the country, The Students of Georgetown, Inc. Clyde has a passion for the arts, throwing pottery with his brother since high school. At Georgetown, he leads the Ceramics Club, promoting pottery and the arts to underexposed students. In addition, Clyde is an avid outdoor enthusiast and volunteers as a guide for Georgetown’s Outdoor Education program. Clyde’s teaching experience started with Mathnasium, a group of math tutoring centers focused on elementary through high school students. He planned lessons for enrichment as well as test prep, bringing a passion for the subject. In his free time, Clyde loves to cook, exercise, hike, and make cold brew. He looks forward to bringing his excitement for math to the Curious Cardinals team!

Aidan is an undergraduate at Stanford University pursuing a major in Electrical Engineering, and potentially minoring in Computer Science and American History. Aidan is a Bay Area native, having attended Woodside Priory in Portola Valley. In high school, Aidan dove as deep as he could into his school’s STEM and History offerings, taking Data Structures, Artificial Intelligence, and Calc III, as well as Honors World History and AP US History. In his junior year of high school, Aidan discovered his passion for teaching as a TA for Priory’s Intro to CS class where he would run labs, help students outside of school, and even teach the entire class on occasion. In his senior year, Aidan was a TA for World History, where he graded papers and helped lead seminars. Most of Aidan’s time was spent on out-of-school projects, where he founded http://Gardensense.net, a low-cost environmental sensor network for small to medium scale agriculture projects. He is currently working on helping integrate the project into school gardens! He is also in the process of securing a patent (UPSTO: 62/412,892) for a smart case for common and expensive temperature-sensitive life saving medicines such as Epinephrine or Narcan. Since the beginning of high school, Aidan has spent his summers as an electrical engineer at V5 Systems, where he learns how the industry works and how products are built in the real world. He is always working on his portfolio of personal projects, whether he is building his friend a concussion-detecting device, or a 3’x2’ CNC CO2 Laser Cutter, he does it all with a smile and healthy obsession. When he’s not doing homework or projects, you can find Aidan playing chess, going out on weekends with his friends, and cooking at every opportunity he gets!

Eliana is a sophomore at Stanford University pursuing a major in Earth Systems with a focus on Human Environmental Systems, as well as minors in Arabic and Creative Writing. Back on campus, Eliana spent most of her free time planting, harvesting, and planning community events at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, where she served as the Vice President of the student organization Stanford Roots. In high school, Eliana spent half of her junior year at The Mountain School of Milton Academy—a small, semester-based school in Vermont with an interdisciplinary curriculum centered around environmental science and sustainable agriculture. During her summers, Eliana delved deep into topics surrounding personal identity and contrasting historical narratives at the Seeds of Peace Camp, where she participated in daily dialogue sessions with high school students from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and the US. Eliana later traveled with the organization to Nazareth, where she was trained in mediation and conflict resolution by professors from the Harvard Law School Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. This year while taking time off from classes, Eliana pursued an independent research project with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative on the complex risks associated with proposed geoengineering solutions to the climate crisis. She also worked as an Archivist for Earth Refuge, the first legal think tank devoted to climate migrants. Most recently, Eliana has been conducting research for Rangelands Restoration Trust, a non-profit working with communities in Southern Zimbabwe to restore natural ecosystems and create sustainable economic opportunities for smallholder farmers.

Kailas studies Math and Physics, along with a minor in History. He began his career studying plasma physics nuclear fusion– working on the NSTX-U reactor at PPPL. Later, he went on to help build one of the world’s first quantum computers to design some of the fastest, most efficient conventional supercomputers at IBM. At Harvard, he has been the teaching assistant to several classes including Math 55, mathematical economics, and mathematical physics. Kailas Co-founded the Harvard Satellite Team, where he helped launch many test rockets at the White Sands range in New Mexico, and founded the Harvard Historical Wargaming Society. He has spent time in management with the Boston Consulting Group and Morgan Stanley. Currently, he is employed by the United States Department of Defense. Kailas feels at home in the outdoors and spends his free time backpacking, surfing, skiing, reading, and hiking. He hopes to one day visit every national park. Kailas hopes to share his love of History, Mathematics, Science, and Nature with students at Curious Cardinals.

After growing up in Houston, Texas, Ashley moved to California to attend Stanford University. She received a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Earth Systems, and recently finished her Master’s in Environmental Communication at Stanford. At Stanford, she was able to devote extensive time and energy to teaching. She created her own Alternative Spring Break trip and taught a quarter-long class on the ethics of international service and aid. She’s facilitated as a cohort lead for the Emerson Fellowship, a social justice fellowship program for sophomore students. And most recently, she’s taken up the role as the Head Teaching Assistant for Earth Systems 10, the largest introductory environmental science course at Stanford. She hopes to eventually become active in environmental and social justice organizing spaces and flex her facilitation and communication skills! She strongly believes that change comes on the community and classroom-level and is excited to bring her energy and enthusiasm into Curious Cardinal classrooms. Outside of the classroom, you can find Ashley hiking, watching Chef's Table, practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and reading.

Isaac is pursuing a major in American history and a minor in Spanish at Stanford University, where he is an editor of Stanford Law School’s Stanford Technology Law Review and a member of the club water polo team. Isaac was previously a Senior Analyst with Stanford Consulting, where he devised business solutions for a multinational Fortune 500 company and two unicorn startups. Outside of the classroom, Isaac has worked in Congressman Adam Schiff’s Washington, D.C. office and for the Am Law top-200 firm Kobre & Kim. Before Stanford, Isaac attended Polytechnic School in Pasadena, CA, where he graduated cum laude and captained Poly’s water polo and debate teams, winning multiple national championships in parliamentary debate.

Sharanya is pursuing a degree in Finance and Sustainable Business with a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies at New York University. In 2020, she graduated high school and was selected as the Principal's Outstanding Student. She was also the president of the Future Business Leaders of America chapter, the Girl Up chapter, Startups Club and the captain of the Consumer Bowl Team. She has experience running hackathons, pitching companies, and marketing on social media. Throughout high school, Sharanya built Spill the Tea, a boba company that sells DIY bubble tea kits. Through this experience, she has won various national awards, received grants to run her company, and was featured in the Wall Street Journal as a teen entrepreneur. In addition, she started Period Kit Packing Parties, an initiative to help teens learn how to host period parties, events where people come together to donate hygiene products to homeless menstruators. This initiative has helped hundreds of women across America gain access to period products. She has also held various internships at startups, including a pet lifestyle company and a global women's mentorship program. Currently, Sharanya is on the board for NYU's Strategic Venture Society and Undergraduate Stern Women in Business Club and is interning at a venture capital firm focused on women's healthcare. In her free time, she likes to dance, read, and hike with her dog, Gucci. At Curious Cardinals, Sharanya is excited for students to gain the skills needed to achieve all of their biggest dreams!

Esther is a first-generation Stanford 2020 graduate from Brooklyn, New York. During her time at Stanford she majored in History and published her original scholarship on HIV/AIDS and policing in Stanford's undergraduate History journal. Since graduating, she has worked with the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project to prevent COVID-19 from influencing election outcomes, wrote fact briefs to dispel fake news all over social media, and is currently a research assistant for fantasy novelist Tomi Adeyemi. She is a multi-media storyteller interested in writing, filmmaking, magazine-making, and music-mixing.

Cece King currently studies Arabic and Geography at Dartmouth College. She recently finished a gap year where she was on the founding team of Curious Cardinals and worked as a production assistant on a documentary about emerging artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. A journalist, she wrote a column for the Camden Herald the prior summer and has contributed to various publications in New York and Maine. She recently received a grant to research the history of women at Dartmouth College and previously researched regime change in the Congo for a Foreign Affairs author’s book. In 2019, Cece finished her term as a voting member of Manhattan Community Board 8 after she was awarded a City Council Citation, where she represented her 230,000 person district and sat on the Small Business and Education Committees. The summer before, she traveled to Texas as a legal assistant and Spanish interpreter at the Immigration Justice Campaign’s Dilley Pro Bono Project, helping prepare detained immigrants for asylum interviews. She now serves on the executive board of the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth! In high school she spent a semester studying ethics and policy in Washington D.C. at The School for Ethics and Global Leadership. She later received a National Security Language Initiative scholarship from the US Department of State to live in Rabat, Morocco and study Arabic. Cece has also performed with the largest children’s circus in North America and continues to train professionally and with her Dartmouth Aerial Arts club. When she’s not exploring new corners of the world, she’s choreographing aerial acts in her head or brainstorming her next halloween costume–she dressed up as Gloria Steinem her senior year of high school.

Tomiwa is passionate about the intersections of business, technology, and education. He is currently a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Computer Science and Business. A few years ago, he wrote a book, “Achieving Balanced Success” that encourages students to balance their academics and responsibilities while exploring their interests assertively. Tomiwa hopes to continue to promote self-discovery through learning at Curious Cardinals by sharing interests of his own. Since high school, his interest in technology and entrepreneurship led him to work with two Y-Combinator companies in the last few years. More recently he was a Software Engineering intern at a fintech startup and now had a similar role with a student-found health tech startup at Penn. Tomiwa is excited to support students in their learning and exploration. Tomiwa’s teaching experience extends from high school and he was more recently a Teaching Assistant for a Computer Science class. This, combined with Tomiwa’s love for learning, makes him excited to provide a great learning experience for students.

Dean is pursuing undergraduate and coterminal master’s degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University. A firm believer in the potential of Big Data and Machine Learning, his focus is in Artificial Intelligence, and he has taken courses in Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, and more. His other interests within CS include mobile, web, and game development. Recently, Dean has had two software engineering internships at Apple - one as an Algorithms R&D Engineer for the Camera & Photos team, and one as a Machine Learning Engineer. Prior to that, he interned at a small startup named Quadric working on Convolutional Neural Networks. With his extra time in quarantine, he built his own portfolio website from scratch, worked on an automatic Secret Santa program, and coded a user interface to display the weather in any city. His teaching experience includes leading Python, Java, Arduino, and IoT classes for high schoolers, volunteering as a one-on-one abacus tutor for individuals with autism, and helping his two younger siblings on their schoolwork. After a successful junior career as a tennis player, Dean also walked on to the Men’s Varsity Tennis Team at Stanford. He dedicates 20+ hours per week between practices, workouts, matches, and more.

Enjolique Hughes was born and raised in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i. In high school, she was a very active member of her soccer and volleyball teams, traveling nationally to compete. Enjolique also founded her school’s Space Club, winning the NASA AMES Space Settlement Design Competition as the club’s president and being selected as a student delegate for the International MoonBase Summit and the International Space Development Conference. Through these achievements, she received recognition from the office of the governor for representing Hawai’i on the international level. She was also heavily involved in her school’s musical theatre program.  Enjolique is now a junior at Princeton University where she is majoring in History while completing Pre-Medical requirements, and obtaining certificates in European Cultural Studies and the History and Practice of Diplomacy. She is a member of Army ROTC, the President of the Hawai’i Club, and a captain of the Women’s club volleyball team. She has also worked as a researcher in Holocaust history, as a nursing assistant at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and as an administrative assistant at Project Expedite Justice. After graduating from Princeton, she hopes to attend medical school. Enjolique is passionate about alternative historical narratives, international law, space settlement design, musical theatre, and rural healthcare. She especially cares about the representation of women of color in demographically challenging spaces. Through education, she hopes to empower students to seek out truths in the stories others tell.

Blake is currently pursuing a degree in Government modified Economics and a minor in Human-Centered Design at Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, Blake works for the Rockefeller Center as a policy fellow and as a student assistant for public programs. Blake’s first foray into politics began her junior year of high school when she attended The School for Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL). This Washington D.C. program focuses on crafting cohorts of diverse students into an intentional community that learns to become more ethically-driven and globally aware. Since then, Blake has turned her focus to political media and communications, interning for a New York City public relations firm, and as a speech and copy writer for CNN host Michael Smerconish. In the fall of 2020, she worked as the Press Assistant on the Dr. Al Gross for U.S. Senate campaign based out of Anchorage, Alaska. This spring, she worked as Communications Associate on a local Manhattan campaign. This summer she will be working for a D.C.-based consulting firm. After high school, she took a gap year during which she backpacked her way through South East Asia and studied Spanish in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Outside the classroom, Blake is a member of the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club. Blake is excited to challenge her students to question their initial assumptions and to learn strategies for more effective communication.

Elena is a Stanford senior studying the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) track of Symbolic Systems, an interdisciplinary major composed primarily of Computer Science with courses in Philosophy, Psychology and Linguistics. She is also the first student to officially minor in Ethics and Technology at Stanford. Outside of her studies, Elena teaches a section for Stanford’s introductory Computer Science course and a Product Design course called “Designing Research Based Interventions to Solve Global Health Problems.” She co-created the Teach CS 4 Good program for high school students (teachcs4good.org) and is currently the President of Stanford’s Social Entrepreneurial Students’ Association (SENSA). She was a Donald Kennedy Public Service Fellow and has worked in a health-tech social enterprise as a product manager since Spring 2019 developing a concussion education product that will be used by 19 of the US Olympic Committee’s national governing bodies (USA Soccer, USA Gymnastics, USA Football, etc) and various medical institutions across the US. In her free time Elena loves to read, search for hidden gem Spotify artists and venture outside. Elena is eager to share her passion for developing strategies and policies that harness technology for its maximum positive impact while limiting its negative consequences. She hopes to illuminate how tech giants of today are quietly shaping our lives, minds and world, with her ultimate goal of empowering students to both demand more ethical products from today’s technology industry and to build the most positively-powerful tools of tomorrow.

Chloe is currently a product designer at the financial services startup, Carta. She recently finished her master's degree at Stanford in mechanical design engineering, where she also studied product design during undergrad. She has been a teaching assistant all throughout her master's program, teaching 4 human-computer interaction courses within Stanford's computer science department. Recognized as a top teaching assistant within the department - an award only given to the top 5% of teaching assistants, Chloe is passionate around UI/UX design education and has coached 100+ students and their teams to successfully complete mobile app projects. Professionally, Chloe has worked at 2 health startups doing web and mobile design, and was selected to be 1 of 11 Kleiner Perkins Design Fellows nationwide in 2020. Chloe is originally from Buffalo, New York. In high school, she was awarded Scholar Athlete as captain of her tennis team, a first chair viola player in her school's orchestra, and valedictorian. She loves to travel, and has studied abroad in Florence as well as Tokyo. In her free time, Chloe enjoys sewing her own clothes and is a huge foodie!

Oliver is graduating in math and physics this June. Currently, he is finishing his thesis on semi-Riemannian geometry and its applications to relativity. He will begin a position as a research physicist studying quantum computers in the summer.

Emma is an avid learner majoring in Astrophysics and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of California Berkeley. In 2019, Emma graduated Summa Cum Laude from St. Paul’s School with awards in Science, Music and Mathematics. While at St. Paul’s, Emma tutored children aged 7-12 from local public schools in STEM topics. Emma interned at MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation and worked on a project called the Analysis of Urban Air Mobility Constraints that studied potential implementations of ‘flying car’ technology. Upon her graduation, Emma was awarded the Lovejoy Science Prize for integration of science into a liberal arts education. After her graduation, Emma took a gap year and taught young girls about feminism, politics, and history in Cape Town, backpacked the Kathmandu Valley Rim in Nepal, and worked as a counsellor at a sleepaway summer camp in Vermont. At UC Berkeley, Emma has explored a plethora of disciplines external to her majors. In her first semester at Berkeley, she was chosen to conduct research in the Anthropology department relating to Middle Meningeal and Endocranial data. She is part of a wide variety of clubs across campus including the ASUC Sustainability Commission, the Student Organic Gardening Association, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop, the Art and Mind Organization, and the Free Peach Comedy and Sketch Group. In addition to her coursework and numerous clubs, Emma often spends time hiking, painting, or reading and watching Harry Potter!

Emma is a pre-medical student at Stanford, majoring in Biology with a Neuroscience specialty and a minor in psychology. Emma is currently a lab assistant in the Stanford Neurodevelopment Affect and pathology lab. When not in the lab, she can be found volunteering at Stanford Hospital or planning Stanford Premedical Association service events. She also loves philosophy, and was invited to apply to write an Honors thesis under the Stanford Center for Ethics and Society. Previously Emma also interned for the childhood psychology startup BabyNoggin, researching the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on early education. Emma was honored as Valedictorian of her graduating class at Woodside Priory Highschool and excelled at Model United Nations. She led her cross country team to state championships as varsity captain, and is passionate about her work coaching underserved girls with Bay Area Women’s Sports initiative. A lover of all things French, Emma speaks the language with her mother and loves discussing French art, film and culture. During her junior summer she served as a Dr. James Fann Teaching Fellow in the Cardiothoracic labs at Stanford, having dedicated her previous summers to cardiac study. Emma is also one of the youngest people to assist in the operating room in the first phase of a heart transplant alongside her mentor, Cardiothoracic Surgeon Paul Chang. She is also a certified EMT!

Josué is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Product Realization at Stanford University. In 2019, he graduated from Alisal High School in Salinas, California as the Valedictorian and four year captain of the Varsity basketball team. Growing up in a community of predominantly Latino immigrants opened his eyes to the large inequalities in society. He has been involved in various forms of activism in his community, including helping found the Monterey County Black and Brown Solidarity Coalition this summer, where they organized a 14-mile march to speak against police brutality and systematic racism. In addition, Josué’s passion for engineering and design came from when he joined the Robotics club in high school and his team won first place at a regional competition. This opened his eyes to the myriad of creative projects that can be done through engineering. Since then, he has worked on addressing issues like socioeconomic inequity in solar energy through his internship with Shake Energy Collaborative, to currently working on a product to address the issue of global hunger with the Stanford Social Entrepreneurship Student Association. He also serves as a Team Manager for the Men’s Basketball Team and founded a custom shoe painting business with his dad and brother. Whether you have a design idea or want to learn Spanish, Josué is eager to speak with students about any of his passions. He is a big believer in “learning by doing”, and he is excited to collaborate with students on any curiosities they might have!

Lauren is pursuing a major in Political Theory with minors in "American Ideals and Institutions" and "Values and Public Life" at Princeton University. Lauren is the team captain of the women's varsity lightweight crew team and won silver in the 2019 Collegiate National Championship. Upon graduation, she will row at Rutgers University while pursuing a certificate in Public Policy before beginning her J.D at Harvard Law. Lauren plans to study education law with the ultimate goal of entering the legal field of special education. She is currently writing her senior thesis on the separate education of elementary students with cognitive disabilities in American public schools. Lauren has been involved with Special Olympics from a young age because her younger brother is a Special Olympic athlete; while at undergrad, she ran a Special Olympic Rowing program that serves over 30 adults with disabilities in the Princeton community. The program opens the resources of collegiate boathouses to the broader community, making the sport more accessible and connecting athletes of different backgrounds. At Curious Cardinals, Lauren will teach on disability studies as well as Constitutional Law and Ethics.

Sophie Bauder is a senior at Harvard University studying History and Literature, with a Secondary in Government and Language Citation in Mandarin Chinese. She has worked in education for numerous organizations, including the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Almost Fun, and Curious Cardinals, in addition to her 6+ years of tutoring experience. She is also interested in politics and has worked at 270 Strategies, a progressive public engagement firm, and Harvard Votes Challenge, an organization focused on increasing voting rates on campus. She enjoys dabbling in data analysis, web design, and graphic design as well! In her spare time, Sophie loves theater and has performed in more than 25 plays and musicals over the last decade.

Brooke is a rising sophomore at Harvard College studying Applied Math and Economics. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and attended Harvard-Westlake High School in Studio City. In high school, Brooke participated in student government as well as varsity soccer and track. At Harvard, she is a math teaching assistant and a volunteer for the Petey Greene Program, a foundation which supports the academic goals of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people through high-quality volunteer tutoring programs. She is incredibly passionate about criminal justice reform, and has spent a lot of her free time reading works by Bryan Stevenson, Michelle Alexander, and Angela Davis. She also loves math and is excited to hopefully inspire a similar appreciation for math in her students. She hopes to one day pursue a career in data analytics. Outside of school, Brooke loves to read, cook, watch movies, and hike with her dogs. She also loves to travel, and is currently spending the summer in Lisbon studying data science. She can’t wait to meet her future mentees!

At Princeton University, Brooke is pursuing a major in Economics and minor in Finance. She graduated from her high school with offers from both Cambridge University and Princeton University, as well as a top 1% GPA across the UK specialising in Chemistry, Latin, Music and Mathematics. Brooke has an unusually strong music academic and performance background. As a junior in high school, she was accepted as the youngest member into the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, alongside being selected as lead Viola for the National Youth String Orchestra. Music theory, history and analysis is of continued interest to her, and she has been able to continue her learning at Princeton. She also started at Princeton as a Chemistry major, so has a strong background in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. However, her ultimate degree in Economics and Finance takes a mathematical route, with a strong focus on Statistics and Econometrics. Brooke is keen to focus on teaching Economics/Finance, Music and Chemistry. She is very excited about sharing her love for these subjects and hopefully to inspire students to enjoy them as much as she does!

Lana is passionate about transforming educational settings into spaces for intergenerational healing, personal growth, and creative expansion. Originally from Durham, NC, she majors in Educational Studies at Barnard College in NYC and loves to give her students tools to critically think about gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity dynamics through literature, writing, and history.

Ava is a freshman at Princeton University concentrating in the School of Public and International Affairs with a certificate in French Language and Culture. She graduated from Riverdale Country School in 2020 where she served as president of the Best Buddies club, forging friendships with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities; she was also captain of the varsity cross country, indoor, and outdoor track teams and wrote for the school newspaper. While navigating her freshman year amidst the pandemic, Ava volunteers with the Princeton Re-Entry Employment Preparation club and writes for the opinions section of her school newspaper. As someone who is spurred on by global politics and passionate about community service Ava hopes to inspire her students to think critically about their surroundings to help make the world a better place!

Elizabeth completed five semesters at Princeton University before electing to take a gap year. She will return to school in February, 2022. She is majoring in French and Art History with certificates in both Gender Studies and European Cultural Studies. When on campus, Elizabeth is on the women’s lightweight crew team, she volunteers for the Special Olympics, and she works as the student manager of the football team. Elizabeth fell in love with fashion when she was just five years old and it has been her greatest passion ever since. In high school, she immersed herself completely in the industry. During her sophomore year, she created her own fashion brand from the ground up, gaining invaluable business and entrepreneurial skills along the way. During her junior and senior years, Elizabeth interned in public relations and marketing for a fashion and lifestyle influencer. Last summer, she interned for Nicole Miller in New York City, where she returned this spring while on leave from Princeton. Throughout high school and college, Elizabeth has also either attended or worked backstage at six seasons of New York Fashion Week. She loves her work with Curious Cardinals, where she strives to inspire her students to start their own journeys in the fashion world.

Bendix is pursuing a medical degree at the University of Heidelberg (Germany). Already back in high school, he was passionate about medicine and organised events to inform about bone marrow and organ donations when he was student body president. In his gap year after high school, he worked as second surgical assistant in a local hospital and did several internships, one of them in the lab of nobel laureate Ada Yonath, doing research on antibiotic resistances. He even received a financial grant by the prime minister of his state for this internship. Having the opinion that ethics is an important part of research, Bendix founded the International Debate Club for Ethics in Science in early 2020 in collaboration with some friends and the Israeli Weizmann Institute of Science. Apart from academia, Bendix is a semi-professional sailor. He won the German Championships in preolympic sailing back in 2016 and is currently competing at the top of the German sailing league. When he’s not sailing, he gives his knowledge to the younger generations as a sailing coach. With this experience in practical teaching, Bendix is happy to use these teaching techniques when tutoring the nobel laureates of tomorrow in the Curious Cardinals classes.

Jonah discovered his love for mathematics in the old textbooks that his high school teachers gave him. These books exposed Jonah to various advanced fields of mathematics, such as abstract algebra and set theory. They also prepared him for the proof-based mathematics that is ubiquitous in college, a skill that high school, unfortunately, hardly teaches its students. Jonah spent his weekends at the National Air and Space Museum, where he educated visitors on the physics of flight and space. The hours spent at the museum gave him experience teaching people of all ages, from plane-obsessed children to curious adults. There is nothing more fulfilling for Jonah than seeing a visitor share in his enthusiasm and understand a new concept. Jonah is currently on a year-off after his first year at Brown University, where he is concentrating in Mathematics with a possible second concentration in English. In his first year, he took upper-level courses in abstract algebra, number theory, and real analysis. Jonah has participated in directed reading programs on representation theory and algebraic combinatorics in the math and applied math departments, respectively. Despite his intense focus on mathematics, Jonah also has experience with physics and robotics. He was the mechanical and design lead of his high school robotics team. Each year, Jonah used CAD software such as Solidworks. Then he directed its fabrication and construction. Whether it is math, physics, or even literature, Jonah is excited to help you take your knowledge to the next level.

Priya is studying Psychology and Economics at Harvard, where she leads a magazine on undergraduate mental health and an organization that encourages dialogue on US-India affairs. Priya is passionate about all things behavior and social science, conducting research at the intersection of time and happiness at Harvard Business School and liaising with undergraduates on behalf of the university-wide Behavioral Insights Student Group. After her sophomore year of college, Priya took two consecutive gap years and worked for a startup in India. As one of four founding members, she headed the communications and marketing department. She played a key role in creating and broadcasting advertising materials, and even designed a billboard on a major highway! Priya grew up in Northern Virginia, just outside of the nation’s capital. In high school, Priya devoted most of her time to participating in state- and nationwide Latin competitions and to improving diversity and inclusion initiatives at her school. Outside of school, Priya loves practicing yoga, reading thrillers and nonfiction, and eating chocolate dessert. At Curious Cardinals, Priya is excited to teach subjects related to psychology, neuroscience, language, and entrepreneurship. Most of all, she wants to inspire her students to love learning.

Luke is a sophomore at Brown University pursuing a double concentration in Computer Science and Modern Culture & Media. Originally from Los Angeles, he graduated Cum Laude at Harvard-Westlake School, where he took on a wide range of studies and extracurricular activities. Completing his school’s five-year computer science track, he quickly developed a passion for coding, going on to designing websites, programming robotics competitions, and coding games in Unreal Engine. He has a passion for learning foreign languages, self-studying German and Italian at an intermediate level along with obtaining fluency in Spanish. He put these skills to use as Head Editor for his high school’s foreign language literary magazine, as well as serving as the Head Translator for a student-run foreign affairs publication, The Myriad. In addition, he spent his weekends working as a clinical volunteer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, assisting both patients and nurses. At Brown, he has continued his passion for computer science both in and out of class, applying his programming knowledge to game development, especially in Unreal Engine. He has also become involved in the film world, working as a producer and location sound recordist on student films at Brown and taking cinema theory classes as part of the film production track for his studies in Modern Culture & Media. For fun, he loves watching classic movies, going on hikes, skateboarding, and playing guitar with his friends.

Jack Riley is a rising junior at Brown University studying Music and Computer Science. He is a co-president and co-founder of the Brown Organization of Producers and Songwriters (BOPS), as well as technical director and executive board member for Tunes for Change, a Brown organization that hosts charitable benefit concerts. In 2021, he was a recipient of the Brown Department of Music Margery MacColl Award for outstanding musicianship. Jack is an accredited music producer who, at 19, had songs featured on Spotify’s “New Music Friday,” “Anti Pop,” and “Fresh Finds” editorial playlists. A drummer and bassist at heart, his work ranges from hip-hop to indie pop to folk. An impassioned teacher, Jack has taught music at School of Rock, and in fall 2020 designed and taught a music production course at Wave Learning Festival. He is also a teaching assistant in computer science courses at Brown, and taught Java programming at iD Tech Camps in summer 2020. Though he has since left collegiate track & field to spend more time music-making, Jack graduated from Harvard-Westlake in 2019 a two-time CIF Champion, California state finalist, and school record-holder as a sprinter. While injuries may still plague him, Jack remains a track fanatic at heart, running or cycling in his spare time.

Originally born in Ethiopia, Yab immigrated to America at the age of three. Since then, he has lived in Illinois where he attended Urbana High School. During his time there, he was active in student government, cross country, track and field, and Habitat for Humanity. In high school, Yab found his passion in economics and the critical role it plays in people’s well-being. Yab is currently a freshman at Harvard University. In his studies, he is exploring the intersectionality of economics and government and hopes to one day use his knowledge to create positive change in the world. At Harvard, Yab is active in BLK Capital Management (a student-run and black-owned hedge fund) and the Harvard Venture Capital Group. He has also interned at the University of Illinois as a marketing intern.

Madeline is studying Physics with an Astrophysics concentration and Comparative Literature at Stanford. Madeline graduated from St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in 2018 where she was recognized for her achievements in History, English, Astrophysics, and overall academic standing. Highlights of her experience include designing capstone projects on the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering and the intersections of quantum theory and literature. As a senior, she spent her time at the school observatory building a radio telescope with her Astrophysics teacher. In college, Madeline has spent her summers working on several different projects at two different NASA centers. At Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, Madeline worked on the Precision Orbit Determination team for ICESat-2, a science mission satellite studying Earth’s polar regions. The following summer, Madeline worked directly under Gavin Schmidt, NASA's newly-appointed Chief Climate Advisor, to analyze long-range climate models and satellite observations. The GISS ModelE is currently an instrumental part of the IPCC reports, which influence international policy decisions and shape public understanding of Earth’s changing climate. This spring, Madeline is taking time off from Stanford to compile her research findings into a formal paper which she hopes to publish. Madeline’s goal at Curious Cardinals is to help students identify their passions and encourage them to make connections between the humanities and sciences. She has teaching experience and expertise in 6th-12th grade Math, Science, and English. Madeline challenges students to have fun and reach for the stars!

Nabib is a Harvard student studying Computer Science, Statistics, and Economics originally from New York City. He graduated within the top 1% of his class from a New York Specialized High School as an AP National Scholar and Intel Science Scholar. He received offers from 7 Ivy League Schools, MIT, and Stanford, and ultimately matriculated at Harvard where he's in the dual masters/bachelor's program as a Gates Millennium Scholar. He has experience in academia and research (co-authoring his first research paper in high school), public policy and government (leading various political campaigns and passing successful legislation in NYC), software development (completing numerous technical projects and working as an industry Software Engineer for Oracle and FaceBook), finance and business management (consulting for multiple Fortune 500 companies), and education (leading workshops and conferences globally in Asia, Latin America, and Europe). His current project is a start-up developing sensor technology for produce ripeness in an effort to combat food waste and loss. He's passionate about helping the next generation of students achieve their full potential through supplementary education or mentorship on passion projects!

Melanie is a junior at Stanford majoring in English with Creative Writing and minoring in Italian. She loves reading, writing, and soaking in the Palo Alto sunshine with a good novel in hand. She’s also an enormous pasta fan and plans to study abroad in Florence post Covid to perfect her Italian.  
 In high school, Melanie privately tutored elementary and middle schoolers in a range of subjects. She ran a community service organization that helped underprivileged children learn how to read and write their own stories, and founded an after-school improv program at a local elementary school. After her junior year, she received the Werner F. Chilton Fellowship, which awarded her stellar writing abilities and provided a scholarship for her to attend the Kenyon Young Writer’s Workshop. Melanie was the leader of her school’s Interact Club, an organization that fundraised for non-profits.  
 At Stanford, Melanie is a member and social officer of the Stanford Equestrian Team. She has ridden horses competitively for ten years and is ranked fifteenth in the IHSA. She loves spending time with horses and coordinating events for her teammates. This summer, she was an editorial intern at Setting Mind, a multimedia company dedicated to promoting sustainable products. Melanie is extremely passionate about all forms of storytelling and loves sharing her love for literature with Curious Cardinals! 

Katharine, a member of the Stanford class of 2025, is a humanities enthusiast and lover of languages. She graduated Cum Laude from Trinity, New York in 2020 and is eager to cultivate a passion for history, writing and languages in students during her time at Stanford. At her high school, Trinity, Katharine was captain of the Model Congress team and served as Editor-in-Chief of both the political and entertainment publications. Katharine was furthermore a three-year tutor and head of the French section of Trinity Modern Language Tutors, a group that meets weekly with Middle School students to provide tutoring services in modern languages. In addition to graduating Cum Laude, Katharine was a three-time recipient of an award given annually to the top three students in each class and won prizes for excellence in History, English, and Latin Poetry. She is also a dedicated runner and served as captain of Trinity’s Indoor and Outdoor Track team from 11th-12th grade and competed at the national level. Passionate about languages, Katharine has studied both French and Latin and completed an independent study in Hieroglyphics and Middle Egyptian during her senior year. She also is beginning to learn Arabic at Stanford and hopes to pick up German! Katharine is furthermore a major humanities nerd and loves discussing, researching, and writing about historical events and literature.

Passionate about the global health and development of women and children, Reilly is a rising sophomore at Stanford studying Human Biology, Education, and Spanish. She channels the power of positivity to connect with students of all ages and personality types. Outside of teaching, Reilly can be found conducting research at the Graduate School of Education and leading the Women’s Club Volleyball team.

Andrew is a Computer Science major who founded a company to help students manage their job applications.

Marwah graduated from Harvard with High Honors in S.B. Mechanical Engineering and a psychology secondary. For the past several years, Marwah has been innovating at the intersection of engineering and humanitarian development. She has spearheaded several diverse projects across 7 different countries including Japan, Peru, Turkey, and Kenya, and is currently the Project Lead for Harvard’s Engineers Without Borders Chapter, awarded the Premier Chapter Award amongst 250+ chapters. Marwah has worked in a number of industries ranging from engineering, artificial intelligence, architecture, and consulting. She was awarded the Radcliffe Fellowship to conduct smart biomimetics research and has since then led research in nanofabrication and optics, public policy reform, quantum dot solar cells, and healthcare. Marwah also dedicates her time to a novel vascular synthetic biology project across the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Draper Labs. Marwah has filed numerous patents for her engineering innovations and has received Harvard’s most prestigious awards for her inventions including the Hoopes Prize award for her novel thesis in an accessibility device. In her spare time, Marwah carries an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoys engaging with others to tackle all sorts of problems. She is a bubbly and optimistic person who loves both teaching and learning from others!

Mansi is a senior at Princeton University majoring in Molecular Biology with a minor in Global Health and Health Policy. She is the Treasurer of the Princeton Class of 2022, a volunteer EMT with the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, and a pre-health academic advisor. She also participates in the campus voter engagement group Vote100 and the ESL English tutoring organization El Centro. Mansi is passionate about the social determinants of health, human psychology, and youth political engagement!

Benjamin is a freshman at Stanford University planning on majoring in Bioengineering. He grew up in Southern California (the best part of CA) and graduated in the top 1% at his high school. In his junior year, Benjamin became disillusioned with the way math was taught in public schools. Rote memorization was causing students to lose faith in a beautiful subject. He met with school counselors and math teachers and decided the best way to help was to take action himself. Benjamin subsequently became a volunteer peer tutor, arriving early every morning before school to teach disadvantaged students. He eventually transitioned to private tutoring to help a larger volume of students succeed. Benjamin believes that the most important thing about teaching math is a strong foundation from which individuals can build successfully. Outside of traditional math, Benjamin has also studied and written papers on discrete mathematics, linear bifurcation, and chaos theory, and looks forward to exploring the intersection between math and other arts with Curious Cardinals. In his free time, Benjamin likes to go on food crawls, design Minecraft homes with his two younger sisters, and bike on the beach. At Stanford, Benjamin is conducting summer research with Dr. Paul Wang, renowned Director of the Stanford Cardiac Arrhythmia Service and Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering, where he will use programming to help map ventricular tachycardia in a perfused heart system. Benjamin also facilitates 1-on-1 mentorship events for Vietnamese students as a Public Service Co-Chair for the Stanford Vietnamese Student Association and is an avid writer for The Stanford Daily.

Max, currently on a gap year, is excited to continue his passion for math and science at Princeton University this Fall, where he plans to major in Chemical and Biological Engineering. Max grew up in Concord, Massachusetts and graduated summa cum laude from Groton School while also receiving the sixth form math prize. During his time at Groton, Max was the captain of the Groton’s varsity soccer team, a member of the school spirit committee, a freshman dorm prefect, and a peer counselor among other things. Since graduating last Spring, Max has learned and challenged himself in many new ways outside of a traditional classroom setting. He spent most of the Fall on a cross country road trip, during which he drove over 15,000 miles and visited 19 different national parks, camping in a tent every night. More recently, Max has explored his passion for the outdoors by working at an organic farm in Carlisle, Massachusetts. Max’s love of math began at a young age with an obsession for puzzles, Legos, and and fixing things by hand. After completing calculus his sophomore year of high school, Max explored advanced topics like linear algebra, calculus based statistics and abstract algebra. He enjoys the intricate beauty of both daily and complex mathematics, viewing each math problem like its own individual puzzle. In his free time, Max also loves skiing, surfing, hiking, going out for ice cream, and spending time with his family.

Zach is a sophomore at Stanford University pursuing a major in Biomechanical Engineering and minor in Chemistry. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Zach graduated from Homestead High School top 10 in his class while balancing a busy life outside of the classroom. As a teaching assistant and tutor for an 8th grade class for two and a half years, Zach took an active role in fostering educational development for others. He also worked for the larger community as Co-Chair of Sponsorships for Homestead’s Relay for Life, helping raise thousands for cancer research. In addition, he earned six varsity letters across swimming and soccer, qualifying for state in swimming all four years and was team captain his senior year. Seeking more leadership, Zach also joined the Student-Athlete Leadership Team where he worked to increase athletes’ involvement in the school district. At Stanford, Zach has helped conduct research in the Sociology department and was a research intern in the Systems Neuroscience and Pain Laboratory. There, he investigated how MRIs and machine learning can differentiate between migraine and nonmigraine headaches. Excited to swim outside year-round, Zach quickly joined the club swim team, taking on an active leadership role and planning the club’s home swim meet. This past year he has had the opportunity to serve as Co-President, maintaining a close community through a virtual format. While lots of work got done, he cannot wait to continue serving in this capacity back on campus for his junior year. In his free time, Zach may read, go for a run, or re-watch his favorite shows. He is excited to join Curious Cardinals and share an excitement to learn with others!

Trevor is a senior at Harvard where he studies European intellectual history. An avid freelance photographer, he loves exploring the convergence between philosophy and art, and has published his photographs on and off campus. In the past, he has worked extensively in the international NGO sector, in South Africa, Uganda, and Brazil.

Will is a senior at Harvard College, majoring in English. Will grew up on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, where he was raised by two writers. He attended the public schools on the Cape before leaving to spend his final three years of high school at Milton Academy, just south of Boston. At Milton, he worked as an editor on the school newspaper, and won prizes for his music and op-ed writing, as well as for his senior history paper on Herman Melville. While at Harvard, Will has also been studying Brazilian Portuguese, and was able to spend his sophomore summer in São Paulo through a fellowship with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. In São Paulo, he worked in the curation department of the city’s most celebrated art museum, MASP. He plans to receive a department citation in Portuguese upon graduation. Will has also held multiple positions at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, helping fellows of the institute with archival history research. In 2018, he worked in this capacity for the music historian Matthew Guerrieri and the novelist ZZ Packer. Recently, he has been freelance writing for the Provincetown Independent, a newspaper on Cape Cod, and working remotely for a TV production company on upcoming shows for Netflix, FX, and Hulu. He is currently working on a collection of short stories for his senior thesis that will center loosely on the place of criminality in American identity. He is eager to learn and eager to teach

As a Stanford graduate in Psychology and Theatre & Performance Studies, Mo (she/her) is passionate about mental health and ways of healing, especially as it pertains to practices of honoring and connecting to the Earth. She also believes in cultivating emotional and social wellness at a young age in order to empower children to be their best selves. Her research in Psychology at Stanford revolved around young children’s conceptions of identity development and led to collaborations with local elementary school teachers and non-profits around creating resource guides for “identity-safe classrooms” as well as curriculum grounded in social cohesion. Outside of the classroom, she was a leader in communities devoted to early childhood education; these include Bing Nursery School, Flying Treehouse: A Children’s Repertory Theatre and Camp Kesem, a camp dedicated to supporting children impacted by a parent’s cancer. In high school, Mo competed in pageants and developed her winning campaign around positive self concept and healthy body image education for students at her local elementary schools. Mo currently works for GirlVentures, a non-profit based in Oakland that combines outdoor adventure with social emotional learning for adolescent girls and gender non-binary youth. When she’s not hugging trees or working with children, Mo does freelance podcast production and public speaking with a commitment to building a liberated, equitable, and radically inclusive future. Her experience has led to opportunities working for TEDx San Francisco, Radiolab and Patagonia. In her free time, Mo enjoys cloud-watching, rock climbing and making home-made zines. In whatever endeavor she does, Mo finds outlets to synthesize her technical skill set, creative toolkit, and unique experiences to advocate and empower others.

Camille is a Columbus, Ohio native who is majoring in Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Camille is often on the go, between her position as co-editor in chief of TigerTrends, Princeton’s premier fashion and lifestyle magazine, and her position in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students assisting student organizations with their budgets and purchases. Between these commitments and her studies, Camille is an active member of Princeton Women’s Club Volleyball, Princeton Baking Club, as well as Black Student Union and Princeton Association of Black Women. Camille believes that the secret to conquering humanity’s most pressing issues lies in our connections through education. She previously worked with the Northern Kenyan Conservation Clubs (NKCC), which are partnered with both Princeton University and Mpala Research Centre located in Mpala, Kenya. NKCC serves to teach students grades 3 through 8 about conservation, ecology, and environmentalism through hands-on games, activities, and lessons. During her tenure at Mpala, she developed lesson plans centered around relevant environmental topics critical for Kenyan students to understand as they grow into the nation’s next generation of leaders.

Valeria is currently pursuing a double major in Political Science and Sociology with a minor in Creative Writing at Stanford University. Although Valeria is a Bay Area native, she spent junior year of high school in Washington D.C. studying ethics and global leadership. Valeria later traveled to Rwanda to further her studies on the genocide and community reconstruction. While attending Mountain View High School, Valeria was involved in the journalism program where she wrote an investigative spread on student experiences with sexual assault. Through this work, she uncovered a loophole in the health curriculum that allowed students to graduate without learning affirmative consent, thus violating state standards. Senior year, Valeria wrote a thesis advocating for comprehensive drug policy reform in order to aid in the instability drug trafficking creates in Latin America—a topic close to her heart as a Colombian American. Valeria also co-authored “Just A Thought,” a book featuring teen experiences with mental health and collaborated on a national campaign to “Stop the Stigma” surrounding mental illness. Since high school, Valeria has taken her leadership far beyond the classroom. Within her first month at Stanford, Valeria walked onto the Stanford Men’s Rowing team to be a coxswain. This past summer, she interned at Alliance for Safety and Justice, a nonprofit organization that works to create criminal justice reform through giving crime survivors agency in community healing and shaping public safety policy. In her free time, Valeria enjoys kickboxing, chasing sunrises and sunsets, and learning from her mom who is a pastry chef. Valeria looks forward to working with students to delve deeper into their interests through writing.

Charlie is currently an undergraduate student at Stanford University from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has not declared a major, but is interested in Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, and History. Charlie played ultimate frisbee in high school, and won Rookie of the Year on the Stanford Club Ultimate Frisbee team. He was a member of his high school’s “Green Team”, and organized/gave presentations about the importance of recycling and composting in elementary schools in Minneapolis. He has worked as a summer camp counselor for the last three years, teaching classes such as Mock Trials and The Amazing Race. Charlie volunteered as a youth soccer referee and coach, in addition to playing soccer for his entire life. Most recently, he was a volunteer fellow for the Colorado Democrats, leading phone banking sessions to help keep Colorado blue. He will also be a Stanford campus tour guide for prospective students and their families next fall. He loves reading, politics, sports (especially fantasy football), and philosophical discussions. Charlie hopes to encourage students to follow their passions at Curious Cardinals, no matter what those passions may be.

Alec is a senior at Harvard studying English literature. Last spring, Alec directed, edited and composed music for his own film entitled “Traffic at the Hand Ferry,” and just completed his senior thesis on the HBO series "Deadwood." His interests include literature, poetry, painting and film. Alec has worked as a research partner at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study since his sophomore summer. He has assisted professional researchers and artists in disciplines ranging from documentary photography and archiving, to speech recognition in the Italian language. Also during his sophomore summer, Alec worked as an RA at the Harvard Summer School, acting as a mentor and advisor to twenty high school juniors, as well as leading community service trips to nursing homes and food pantries. At Harvard, Alec is a springboard diver on the Varsity Swimming and Diving team. He was an Ivy League Championship finalist in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons, helping Harvard win championship titles in all three years. While in high school, Alec was an east-national silver medalist on the one-meter springboard, and a national finalist in the three-meter and synchronized diving events. Alec also studied jazz guitar and performed live at venues in and around New York City. Alec hopes to positively influence the lives of students in the way that his old mentors influenced his own.

Brynn is pursuing a major in Symbolic Systems and a minor in Chinese at Stanford University. She graduated Brentwood High School where she received cum laude honors and the Benjamin Franklin Book Award while working as a peer tutor and as a member of student government, Girl Impact, and the Benefacta Service Board. Brynn also wrote and published her own children’s book, “The Perfect Swish,” financed through her own Kickstarter campaign. Her book was inspired by her work for the last ten years raising money for and personally delivering wheelchairs to Israel, South Africa, Vietnam, West Virginia, and Ecuador. Brynn's love of language also led her to co-found an organization dedicated to recording the life stories of the elderly. Brynn also has volunteered for several years as a listener at TEENLINE, a teen-to-teen suicide hotline. Brynn's experiences have trained her to actively listen, empathize, and figure out unique ways to connect to others. Brynn cannot wait to use that training to bolster students’ self-confidence and love of learning. Outside of academics, Brynn loves to engage in deep conversations about life. She cherishes her time with family and friends, reading, watching tv (especially all things Marvel), and running. Throughout her learning career, Brynn has come to realize it’s not about who’s the first one to understand the lesson or the fastest one to answer the question. She believes George Evans, an American cartoonist, sums up learning perfectly: “Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.”

Emily is a working artist living and creating in New York City. She received a full scholarship to Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned a BFA in sculpture and furniture design. After graduating in 2018, Emily began working as a scenic carpenter and sculptor. Her skillsets include soldering, upholstery, carving, pattern making, sewing, wood and metal working. Emily is currently working as a fabricator and apprentice for her favorite designer and idol, Gaetano Pesce. In her free time, Emily is an avid nature explorer and film photographer. Emily became passionate about creating when she was very young, and she hopes to inspire her students to develop confidence in their abilities to design and create artwork.

Montanna is a Sophomore at Stanford studying material science and engineering with a focus on chemistry and a minor in music. In 2019, she graduated summa cum laude from the Groton School where she was a dual varsity captain in volleyball and track and field and an avid cello player, earning her the Harvard Book Prize for academic excellence and high character in 2018. After finding a love for chemistry, especially organic, in high school, she has balanced her academics between molecular interactions (the technical stuff) and the fun stuff like the chemistry of cooking, cultured meat, and of skin, a passion which she’ll continue in her summer lab internship studying the response of skin to ballistics. ​ Outside of the classroom, Montanna loves playing for the women’s rugby team as well as serving as a Stanford tour guide, which perhaps provides a forum for her greatest talents: talking too much and walking backward. When she’s feeling really feisty you can find her taking crazy self-timer photos, hosting midday dance parties, or leading her dorm team to victory in 4 different intramural sports.

I am an educator, entrepreneur, and aspiring physician! I graduated from Stanford in June 2020 with a B.S. in Human Biology and a Minor in Modern Languages (Spanish and Hindi). I have taught and provided mentorship all over Stanford as a Human Behavioral Biology Teaching Assistant, student advisor in the Human Biology Department, resident assistant for an all-frosh dormitory, an ESL instructor for Latina custodial workers, and a summer chemistry tutor. Prior to helping found Curious Cardinals, I co-founded Stanford Alzheimer's Alliance, which pairs Stanford undergraduates with residents who are diagnosed with dementia at the Webster House Health Center in Palo Alto, California. Throughout my undergraduate years, I was also heavily involved with other health-related initiatives such as global health research and volunteering with a free clinic! In my free time, I love watching films, going on hikes, and cooking. I can't wait to connect with you and learn about you and your interests!

Asher Vogel is currently a rising sophomore at Dartmouth College studying computer science and engineering. In June 2019, Asher graduated cum laude from Harvard-Westlake and was awarded the competitive Brownstein Fellowship to support his gap year travels, which began the following fall in Xi’an, China. Asher had previously been to China four times, including once as the recipient of a U.S. State Department study-abroad scholarship and once as an intern for a Shanghai-based securities firm. In Xi’an, Asher taught English at a private secondary school where he led 18 classes per week, each with 40-50 students for a total of almost 900 students. He was tasked with designing his own curriculum and developed a variety of tricks to engage the large classes, including fan-favorite activities such as learning Taylor Swift lyrics and studying the poetry of Robert Frost. In January of his gap year, Asher traveled to Patagonia, Chile, for a two-month wilderness expedition with a small group of peers through some of the most stunning and remote terrain on earth. The expedition included a month of mountaineering and a month of sea kayaking, during which Asher learned many life lessons about leadership, self-sufficiency, and getting along with others under challenging conditions. Asher loves traditional sports in addition to the outdoors. He played club soccer throughout high school and was a captain of his varsity soccer team at Harvard-Westlake. In addition to soccer, he often spends time weight training, skiing, surfing, and playing tennis and basketball. He looks forward to continuing his studies in computer science and engineering next year.

Megan is currently pursuing a major in Public Policy with a minor in Economics at Stanford University. A native Texan, Megan graduated from Greenhill School with a GPA in the top 6% of her class while also being an active member of her community. She served as president of the Student Council and Political Action Club, was a devoted member of her high school’s choir, and a three-sport varsity athlete. She accumulated several honors throughout her high school career such as Athlete of the Year, the Dartmouth Book Award, and induction into the Cum Laude Society. In recognition of all these accomplishments, she was the recipient of the Bernard L. Fulton Award, the highest honor given to a graduating senior at her high school. At Stanford, Megan is a member of the Track and Field team and Stanford Women in Politics. In her free time, Megan loves to sing, play piano, and listen to podcasts. She has previously interned for a Texas State Senate campaign, a Civil District Court, and a local law firm. Currently, she is working as a Research Assistant for Professor Mark Duggan, the director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, looking at the economic implications of privatizing the hospital sector. This summer, she looks forward to beginning her legal fellowship at Covington & Burling LLP, Washington D.C.’s top law firm. She has a deep passion for law, economics, and healthcare, and can’t wait to further explore the intersection of these fields.

Isaac is a senior at Northwestern University majoring in journalism and pursuing minors in marketing and history. Isaac is passionate about reporting, writing, and crafting engaging narratives. From interviewing a San Francisco based artist about his interactive sound installation to speaking to city government leaders about public transportation reforms, Isaac is always searching for meaningful stories to answer his own questions and learn more about the world around him. At the Medill School of Journalism, he’s taken classes like data visualization, multimedia reporting, and even tried his hand with a bit of HTML coding this past quarter. Outside of the classroom, Isaac is a senior editor of North by Northwestern, the university’s leading print-magazine. He is also a frequent contributor to WNUR Radio, reporting and producing audio stories about the Northwestern and Evanston community. Last winter, he was selected to participate in Northwestern’s Bay Area Immersion Program, a unique quarter-long program based in San Francisco examining the intersections of journalism, design, and technology. Last summer, Isaac was a reporting intern for The Village Sun, a local online newspaper covering New York City’s downtown neighborhoods. Isaac is a proud New Yorker – he was a 13-year “survivor” at The Collegiate School where he was captain of the track team, editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, and peer mentor for underclassmen. In his free time, Isaac loves to run in Central Park, watch his favorite soccer team (Liverpool), and do The New York Times daily crossword. At Curious Cardinals he wants to help students find their voice in writing, learn to communicate clearly with language, and feel pride in their work.

Chance studies archaeology and computer science at Brown University while pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter. In 2017, Chance posted his self-produced EP, recorded in his high school music building’s attic, to his Facebook and Instagram. The word spread, local radio got on board, and the EP ascended the iTunes Charts. Four years and one album later, Chance has nearly two million streams on Spotify. Chance graduated summa cum laude from St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire and spent his most recent semester abroad in Tainan City, Taiwan as a visiting scholar studying Southeast Asian Neolithic archaeology. Chance has presented at the MIT Inspire national research competition for his paper on biomimetic innovation, interned as a cartographical archivist in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and biked two thousand kilometers through Northern Patagonia. As a Curious Cardinal teacher, Chance will help his students find their voice through anything from producing the next smash TikTok hit to seeking out undiscovered Mayan cities with drones or making banjos with nothing more than bananas and a circuit board.

Freddie is a senior at Harvard studying History, Literature, and Economics, and she's passionate about all things comedy and writing! She began performing standup and improv in Singapore at age 10 and has since continued performing in Boston, New York, and London. Freddie also writes comedic articles for a variety of online magazines, including Reductress, the Harvard Lampoon, and the feminist comedy zine she co-founded with fellow undergraduates. In her time at Harvard, Freddie has served as president of the Standup Comic Society and an associate editor of the campus satirical newspaper. At Curious Cardinals, she’s is excited to help students find their own comedic voice and learn that passion drives growth: anyone can learn to be an expert in an area they love!

A proud Coloradan, Theresa is a junior at Stanford University who is double majoring in Public Policy and Iberian and Latin American Cultures with a minor in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. A second-generation college student with Chicanx and Mexican heritage, Theresa is deeply committed to racial and economic justice within her own community and in higher education. While at Stanford she was on staff at the Women’s Community Center on campus and worked to sustain empowerment, justice and advocacy with and for students who identify as gender minorities. Additionally, she has spent over 6 years working with students and adults with Special Needs and disabilities providing at-home care, support in the classroom, and coaching in adapted sports teams and swim lessons. Previously she attended high school at a Jesuit, all-girls school where she graduated Salutatorian and with recognition for her Leadership and Service. She has three sisters whom she adores and like virtually all Coloradans, she loves being outdoors: hiking, running, swimming, picnicking, hammocking, gardening, playing with puppies, and looking at the stars.

Ria is majoring in Applied Mathematics in Economics and Computer Science at Harvard, with a minor in English. Even as a sophomore, she has already made an impact on campus: not only does she contribute to the Harvard Lampoon and costume design for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, she is also president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players, a theatre organization with over 60 members and an annual budget of $50,000. Her goal--both as a teacher and a student--is to erase any arbitrary boundaries between the arts and the sciences. She's teaching computers how to read and understand contemporary literature on more than just a surface level, she's the head developer of a startup catering to virtual theatre, and she's looking into weaving graphene into textiles to produce wearable technology. At Curious Cardinals, she will be focused on teaching math, computer science, english, and interdisciplinary art, hoping to slowly weave those disciplines together.

Gary is a rising sophomore at Stanford University pursuing a bachelors in Economics. Hailing from Lawrence, Kansas, he graduated valedictorian from Lawrence High School before journeying to California as a Questbridge National College Match recipient. In his first year at Stanford, he was a member of the Rugby team and participated in Frosh Council. After Covid shut down school, he took a gap year in which he gained meaningful professional experience with a back-office firm in Kansas City working on the Accounting and Payroll teams and worked at a sports betting startup on the business development team. With a degree in Economics, Gary is determined to make his mark in the world of finance and change the landscape of finance for the masses. Outside of the classroom, Gary's greatest passion is sports. A soccer player his entire life, Gary one day desire to work in professional sports management, combining his academic and extracurricular passions. Gary believes firmly in pursuing what you are passionate about -- whatever it may be -- and is determined to help you reach your goals!

Nora Draper is currently pursuing a major in Economics and Mathematics at Yale University. She grew up in Middlebury, Vermont, surrounded by the Green Mountains and dairy farms. Nora spent her senior of high school studying at a small school in Bordeaux, France, and immersing herself in French culture. She is passionate about all things math and science, along with a devotion to gender equity – in particular, helping women stay empowered in STEM. In high school, she worked at an all-female camp for STEM students and exposed girls to STEM concepts in an engaging and fun way. At Yale, she is involved with the Women’s Leadership Initiative, which aims at equalizing opportunities for women in business. She also worked with Yale Circle of Women, which works to provide girls with access to quality secondary education equity. During her freshman year, she served on the operations board for the WLI Women’s Empowerment Conference and worked on the Maia Project, which provides e-readers to students, giving them access to literature at home and in school. Nora has been tutoring in various capacities since her freshman year of high school. She took a gap year for the 2020-2021 academic year and spent her time working as a financial modeling intern, doing research for the Yale School of Medicine, and tutoring. She loved her time off but is very excited to return to school in the Fall. In her free time, Nora enjoys hiking, thrift shopping, watching old movies, and playing with her two dogs. She is very enthusiastic about nature, numbers, and dogs and can’t wait to share that with her Curious students.

Cormac is currently on his second gap year before attending Yale in the fall of 2021. He graduated from high school in New York in 2019 and was a field organizer on the Biden campaign for 13 months, managing hundreds of volunteers and contacting tens of thousands of voters throughout the country. Fascinated by geography, foreign affairs, and politics, he has studied for a semester in D.C. at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership, competed in the U.S. Geography Olympiad, led his high school's Model UN team, worked on a State Senate campaign in New York, and taught middle schoolers Model UN skills. More recently, he has been involved in the Yale Politic and the Yale Review of International Studies, attended Global Citizen Year Academy, worked as a marketing specialist for an organization that increases access to gap years, and interned at a Colombian fintech company while living in Colombia for three months. He observed Ramadan with a family in Jordan to learn Arabic and more about Jordanian culture, and is currently on a wilderness expedition in Alaska with the National Outdoor Leadership School. He loves listening to '70s music and podcasts in Spanish, exploring new places on foot, and having conversations with people from different backgrounds. He has had such positive experiences teaching students in lots of different settings and wants to share the inspiration he was lucky enough to have from so many people in his life.

Gaya is a sophomore who intends to major in Mind, Brain, Behavior with a Psychology specialty at Harvard. She also serves as a research assistant to both Dr. Alexandra Harrisson and Dr. James Beck, helping their respective research into infant-parent mental health and the history of psychiatry, respectively. Taking her interest in psychology outside the classroom, Gaya serves as a University Health Services trained staffer at Contact Peer Counseling, providing non-directive services to Harvard undergraduates looking to talk about their mental health. Having grown up in India, she is a board member of the Harvard US-India Initiative and active within the international student community. Gaya speaks 5 languages and is passionate about learning even more about different cultures through their languages. She also loves learning about new cultures through their cuisines; she ran the cooking club in high school and can often be found experimenting with culinary techniques, setting off fire alarms one kitchen at a time but eventually learning something valuable. She spearheaded the leadership series, which connected Indian pioneers ranging from business tycoons to Bollywood personalities with students at her high school. She also served as editor in chief for the press coverage body of Asia’s largest THIMUN conference. She got the opportunity to go to The Hague to provide press coverage at THIMUN. Gaya served two terms on student government and played for her high school's soccer team for all four years. She is also an avid skier who has been certified by École du Ski Français. Before starting at Curious Cardinals, Gaya spent 6 years as a teaching aid at a school for students with different learning needs, working on everything from helping high school students with art projects to helping lower school students articulate and regulate their emotions. Because of her special education background, she believes that inclusion and diversity must be present in every classroom and that it is important that education equips learners with emotion management skills and critical thinking.

Lucia is a senior studying Business and Technology Management with a concentration in Finance at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. She’s passionate about new technology trends, the cosmetics industry, marketing, and learning new languages. She will begin working full-time at L’Oréal USA following her graduation. She has interned at two startups in the creative entrepreneurship industry and the health and wellness industry in the past: Third EYE Edge and Wholier. Lucia is a people person; she loves helping other people learn, she’s very patient, adapts to student’s learning pace, has tutored high school students, and has helped all younger family members learn. Before attending NYU, she went to the American School of Madrid high school where she graduated with an International Baccalaureate Diploma which includes 6 subjects: English Literature, Mandarin, Math, Biology, Business Management, and Environmental Sciences. Her highest score was in Mandarin (on a grade scale from 1-7, she scored a 7 on her final exam). She’s studied Mandarin for over 6 years, and her native languages are English and Spanish. She’s extremely invested in education. She’s there for her students every step of the way and is dedicated to helping everybody reach their goals!

Paloma Aisenberg is double-majoring in Theatre & Performance Studies and Film & Media Studies at Stanford additionally taking courses in History, International Relations, Psychology and Economics. She is passionate about exploring the space where art and social practice collide. Musical theater is her first love. She has performed (with many leading roles) in over 20 musicals. She placed in the Top 15 of BroadwayWorld’s Next on Stage Competition. Through Stanford Theater Lab, she starred in Marie Antoinette and HAL (a multi-media modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 and 2). This summer, Paloma will be interning at Amazon Studios working on Latin American Content Development. Paloma has interned at Mike Medavoy’s Phoenix Pictures, Salmira Productions, Jay Roach’s Delirious Media, and Brian Oliver’s New Republic Pictures. Paloma worked for executive producer Jeffrey Silver at Walt Disney Studios on the pre-development of The Little Mermaid. She also worked for the L.A. Dance Project where she supported the partnership with The Gabriella Foundation offering quality dance programming to students from economically under-resourced communities. Paloma created Love is The Answer, an artistic musical endeavor, with all proceeds providing scholarships through the Hancock French Woods Arts Alliance for students to study the arts. She produced it as a medium for manifesting acceptance and unity. In high school, Paloma was awarded the Miami Herald Silver Knight Award in the Music and Dance category, Princeton University Service Award and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation - Gold Award for Media and Entertainment, as well as Best of Show and Critic’s Choice at Florida State Thespian Festival Competition. As artists and storytellers, Paloma believes we have a platform to talk about important social issues and is excited to do so with Curious Cardinals.

Julia is a rising junior at Harvard, majoring in Economics with a minor in Government. On campus, she is an avid member of the Harvard Financial Analysts Club and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, where she has led various projects studying the intersection between politics and STEM fields alongside distinguished Harvard professors. She is also a former member of the Harvard Track and Field team. In high school, Julia was the salutatorian of her grade, a member of Model UN, her school’s Math Team, and also the founder of her school’s KIVA chapter, a non profit microfinance organization that allows people to invest in low-income small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world. Despite her academic focus on math, she received various awards across many disciplines, such as the American Chemical Society’s National Achievement Award and Maxima Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam. She loves to study languages, fluent in Spanish after partaking in an exchange program in Madrid. Julia also competed at the national level in cross country and track. She was the team captain and received the MVP award for each season she competed, as well as the New York State Sportsmanship Award, recognizing her positive attitude alongside athletic achievements. Julia has worked as a summer camp counselor for five summers, and has had much experience both working with and tutoring kids. Julia is extremely excited to share her passion for learning across various disciplines and help students reach new milestones in their academic careers.

Julia is pursuing a major in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University with minors in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Political Science, and Symbolic Systems. Since their freshman fall in 2017, they have led multiple student groups successfully. Currently, they are the co-president of the Stanford Student Space Initiative, Fascinate Publication, and Alpha Chi Omega, the captain of the Model UN team, and the financial officer of Health Education for Lifetime Partnerships, Stanford Applied Cybersecurity, and Student Alliance for Justice in Education. In their free time, they belong to a space-themed cover band, The Artemis Generation, where they play guitar. In addition, they figure skate and rollerblade regularly, and they love to watch and play baseball. Crafts are another hobby of theirs, and they sold handmade bracelets and other creations in high school to raise $2,000 for mental health awareness. Their previous work with students is wide-ranging, including tutoring through the National Honors Society in high school, coaching gymnastics for two years, and leading health education workshops for middle school students. They look forward to inspiring more students through Curious Cardinals!

Priyanka is a Singaporean-American writer, editor, and performer. She is a junior majoring in English at Princeton University, with quadruple minors in Italian, Cognitive Science, Creative Writing, and Visual Art. On campus, she is the co-president of Songline Slam Poetry, a student fellow at the AccessAbility Center by the Office of Disability Services, and a member of the student-run Disability Collective and the Beekeeping Team. Outside of school, she is the author of three full-length poetry collections (most recently So, Stranger, Button Poetry, May 2022). In 2015, at age 15, she founded the internationally-acclaimed publishing house, literary journal, and arts organisation Half Mystic; with her team, she has since edited, designed, and published nine journal issues and six books by authors around the world. Priyanka’s peer-reviewed research on poetry, identity, and the sociopolitical underpinnings of queerness in Singapore is published in the Journal of Homosexuality, the oldest existing scholarly journal focused on the study of gender and sexuality, and is taught at the University of Southern California’s doctorate programme in educational leadership. Her poetry and fiction have been published in and featured by Diode, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Straits Times, Entropy, the Boston Poetry Slam, the Singapore Writers Festival, and the Academy of American Poets, among others. In 2017 she gave the TEDx talk Healing Is a Verb. She is the writer and star of the critically-acclaimed short film SUPERNOVA (dir. Ishan Modi, recipient of awards from the Newark International, Across Asia Youth, Laurie Nelson, My Rode Reel, Singapore International Student, & CINE Golden Eagle Film Festivals). She is passionate about disability justice, art for art’s own sake, and joy as a means for imagining and creating change. Her current project is finding the best almond croissant in New York City.

Elie graduated from Stanford in 2020 with a B.A. in Human Biology, concentrating in global maternal-child health. During her undergrad she split her time working in early childhood learning research, human biology courses, and continuing her practice of musical theater. As a high school student, Elie was part of a pre-professional dance program, and spent summers in New York practicing musical theater. She graduated cum laude from Sacramento Country Day School and was an AP scholar with honors. Elie is fluent in Spanish and received the National Hispanic Achievement Award. Elie has always had a passion for teaching. Throughout high school she volunteered as a chemistry teaching assistant and a math tutor. In college she tutored middle and high school students across a variety of academic subjects including high school math and college admission essay writing. She also uses her passion for dance and the arts as a teacher. In high school, she founded A Chance to Dance: a program that provides free dance classes to children in migrant farm worker communities around California. Elie has a plethora of experience working with children. She was a volunteer counselor every summer at Stanford Camp Kesem, a camp for children who's parents have been affected by or passed away from cancer. She was also a counselor at Stanford Sierra Camp. In both programs, she worked with children ages 5-15. Elie is qualified and excited to tutor and teach math, science, writing, and musical theater/dance. At curious cardinals, Elie is excited to empower kids to pursue any and all of their dreams! She can't wait to meet you!

India is a rising junior majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Computer Science at Stanford. Originally from Washington D.C., India graduated from Georgetown Day School. In high school she was the captain of the cross country team, competed for the math team and tutored in her high school’s Math Center. She also enjoyed participating in model UN. She is passionate about politics, which brought her back to Washington to work for Congresswoman Anna Eshoo during the summer after her Freshman year. At Stanford, India has enjoyed taking mostly STEM classes, but has also enjoyed exploring courses in comparative literature and creative writing. Outside the classroom, India can be found tutoring with EPATT, an organization that pairs college and graduate students with local students in order to keep them on track to attend college. India also does research on solvent free chemical reactions used to improve the sustainability of polymer synthesis. She has spent this summer doing computational research on this project, combining her love of chemistry with her interest in computer science. In her free time, India enjoys hiking, debating current events with her roommates, and watching movies with her two younger sisters. India loves learning and teaching and is excited to work with your child!

Vanessa is a rising at Duke University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, with a focus in medical device design and biomaterials/biomechanics, a certificate in Global Development Engineering, and a minor in Math. Post graduation, she will be pursuing her Master of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University (let's go, Duke!). Hailing from Arkansas, Vanessa was Bentonville West High School’s valedictorian, graduating with highest honors. She was also a National Merit Finalist, National AP Scholar, U.S. Presidential Scholar Candidate, and recipient of Arkansas Governor’s Scholastic Honors award. In addition, she remained active in her community and served as the girls basketball head varsity manager, Key Club president, National Honor Society President, and co-captain of the Academic Competition for Excellence team. Vanessa spent her time volunteering as a math tutor for students with disabilities and worked closely with the local library’s advisory board to orchestrate community outreach. In light of these accomplishments, she was awarded the Sarah Redfield Scholarship of Excellence, the most prestigious community scholarship given at her high school. At Duke, Vanessa is a Biomedical Engineering Design Fellow, a selective program specifically designed for preparing biomedical engineers for industrial jobs post-graduation by honing manufacturing and design skills. She is a teaching assistant for a computational methods course, and assists in biomedical engineering teaching laboratories as well. Vanessa served as an undergraduate research assistant in Yildirim Cellular Biology Lab in Duke’s School of Medicine, and spends her weekends mentoring local middle school girls interested in the STEM field. She is deeply passionate about the intersection of healthcare innovation and gender equality in STEM.

Alexandra is a rising freshman at Princeton University where she plans to major in Public and International Affairs. Currently taking a gap year, she works as an intelligence analyst to identify and disrupt terrorist networks in North America. In 2020, she graduated from Hunter College High School in her hometown New York. She also attended Manhattan School of Music Precollege as a violinist and pianist and was praised by the New York Times for her musicality and sensitivity. She has been recognized by numerous international competitions, with solo performances at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She values her intellectual curiosity and has a diverse academic background: she’s researched RNA folding with relevance to HIV treatment, qualified for the invitational round of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad, and written poetry published in literary reviews. As captain of her high school’s classics team, Alexandra won the regional championship twice. She was also individually one of the top Latin students in the country, winning awards for five summa cum laude and four perfect performances on the National Latin Exam. Alexandra received a scholarship from the Department of State to study Russian and now uses her language skills to research American policy in Eastern Europe as a fellow at Sycamore Institute, an undergraduate-run think tank, and to mentor Russian exchange students. Out of the classroom, she captained her high school’s lacrosse team. An experienced teacher and tutor, she always wants to pass her love of learning onto her students.

A Muslim and Palestinian, Samy is an incoming freshman at Stanford University hoping to pursue pre-med. Growing up in a rural community with scanty resources for education and healthcare, he has worked on several initiatives focusing on improving vaccination rates and public health education at his high school and other schools in his community, as well as combating misinformation and gaps in knowledge. As an experienced advanced math student and a soccer player, Samy enjoys solving complex scenarios, whether that’s figuring out how to run compartmental models using ODEs (ordinary differential equations) or brainstorming game tactics with his soccer teammates on the pitch. As an experienced tutor and educator, Samy enjoys fostering a helpful, dynamic atmosphere for his students to learn and grow in their field(s).

Kyra’s favorite topics lie at the Intersection of technology, art, psychology, and language. She is studying Computer Science and Philosophy at Stanford. From 2013 through 2019, through a not-for-profit program she founded called KEM Creative Studios, Kyra taught technical art classes to children in transitional living situations across Los Angeles with $5000 in funding from the Dragon Kim Fellowship. This experience is what initially sparked her love of teaching, and she has since had the pleasure of teaching visual art, graphic design, user experience and user interface design, computer science, and more. Since graduating from high school, Kyra has worked several jobs in product design, product management, product development, branding, marketing, graphic design, and illustration. She is the Co-Director of Design Education for Stanford Womxn in Design (SWID), where she co-launched the SWID Consultant Certification Program, a comprehensive course designed to prepare Stanford students to work in the design industry. She also helped with the launch of the SWID Design Consulting Group, a program that gives experienced design students at Stanford the opportunity to partner with design companies as design consultants and project managers. In addition to math, physics, and Spanish, Kyra generally loves teaching all things creative, from art to coding to storytelling.

Katie is currently pursuing a major in Computer Science at Princeton University. From Ponte Vedra, Florida, she was valedictorian of her graduating class and excelled in her independent summer research in computational astrophysics and her personal entrepreneurial ventures, developing an end-to-end application launched on the Google Play Store. At Princeton, Katie is involved in business and finance-related clubs, developing her passions for leadership and investing. She is an analyst with Tiger Capital Management, the only private, student-run investment fund that provides Princeton undergraduate students with practical investing experience through the pursuit of market-beating returns. Moreover, she was the Director of Human Capital for Business Today, a 501c3 organization with a mission of creating a dynamic community for influential business leaders to interact with undergraduate students from campuses worldwide. In addition, she was selected as a course grader for one of her computer science classes as a result of academic performance and professor recommendation. During her sophomore summer, Katie worked as a project management intern on the Outlook Business and Growth team at Microsoft in Seattle. She ultimately redesigned the onboarding experience for the EDU segment of Outlook, impacting approximately 70 million active users. Outside of school, Katie is extremely passionate about STEM and sharing that passion with younger students who may not have exposure to the field through the typical school experience. Tired of school? Lacking the passion behind education? Katie is ready to revive your motivation to learn! Her strong work ethic and energetic personality will inspire you to embrace your intellectual curiosity.

Divya, a widely-published writer of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction as well as scientific research, is pursuing an interdisciplinary major in Science, Technology, and Society and a minor in Creative Writing at Stanford University. Divya’s creative writing has been published in over 50 journals and magazines, and she has received prestigious international awards for her writing, including being commended in the top 0.78% for the National Poetry Competition and the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award (some of the most competitive writing awards in the UK) as well as the US-based Scholastic Writing Awards. She graduated from the Spence School in New York City with a 4.0 GPA, where she founded the school’s first-ever Creative Writing Workshop, developed and headed the Microfinance Club, and fostered civic engagement as a Senior Member of Model Congress. Throughout high school, she also volunteered at organizations across NYC as a creative writing mentor, designing unique curricula for students. She is currently an Opinions writer for Stanford’s newspaper, The Daily, and a head fellow in multiple literary magazines as well as Stanford Women in Business. She is also pursuing medical research focused on gastroenterology at the Stanford Medical School. Divya’s extensive professional experience includes working at the intersections of free speech, human rights, and literary advocacy at PEN America, managing a consulting company, serving as a teaching associate at the Spence School, interning on the content team of the prestigious Adroit Journal, and performing data analytics work and scientific research for a health-focused tech startup. Four different research papers she wrote were published in various international journals, and she presented her work at multiple global conferences. With an international background (half Italian and half Indian), Divya also loves traveling, exploring new cuisines, and studying languages and etymology. Some of her other passions include theater, historical fiction (particularly Russian literature), running, and tennis. She can’t wait to help you uncover and pursue your own passions!

Hamsini is pursuing a major in Healthcare Management along with a pre-med track at the University of Texas at Dallas. As a sophomore at UTD, she is currently a research assistant at the University of Houston in the MIND Lab where she is researching the effects of TBI on pain and headache while learning about the entrepreneurship world and innovation occurring in the healthcare space as a venture capital fellow at Dipper Research Partners. After developing a business plan for a startup idea freshman year, participating in an accelerator program, and pitching her idea at various competitions, Hamsini found her passion for innovation. As she began discovering the zeal it takes to be a founder, Hamsini began developing and leading her own public policy research projects to learn more about the breaches in the healthcare system. In addition, she enjoys tutoring on the side and leading a non-profit organization that hosts an annual model united nations conference for high school students. As her interests extend over a broad range, Hamsini is looking to learn the most she can from each interaction and experience she comes across. At Curious Cardinals, she cannot be more excited to share her unique experiences with the students, enhance their learning in medicine, and broaden their perspectives on life.

Clara is a Dartmouth student who aims to bridge the gap between the humanities and STEM by incorporating art, storytelling, and philosophy into video game design. While serving as the president of her high school, she was selected to participate in her school’s “STEM Scholars” program where she spent the year designing, programming, and testing a video game aimed at bolstering students’ critical thinking skills. Currently, she is interning at the NYC nonprofit Games for Change and designing a second game that intends to decrease sexist biases in the player and promote positive female representation in the games industry.    When she is not talking about games, Clara loves to read philosophy, classical literature, and poetry. Her favorite poet is Emily Dickinson, and one of her essays about Dickinson was recently awarded with the Dickerson Prize for the best essay written by a Dartmouth freshman in a first-year seminar class. Clara also has experience with nearly all types of design (website, brand, clothing, digital, UI/UX, etc) and has worked as a graphic designer for many organizations such as Amino Apps, Deb Ryan Designs, Excess Brand, The Dartmouth Newspaper, Dartmouth Design Collective, and on-campus concert organizers Friday Night Rock. 

Tricia graduated from Dartmouth College in 2021 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She is currently representing the US racing on the World Cup Alpine Skiing Circuit and hopes to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Outside of skiing and school, she loves adventuring, reading, and learning new things.

Nicholas was born and raised in Lima, Peru and currently lives in the United States. He is a Senior and Master’s student at Stanford studying Public Policy. Nicholas is a fluent speaker of English, Spanish, and Italian, and he is adding French and German to the list. He has experience with international real estate development and investment projects ranging from affordable housing community developments to envisioning the strategy of a futuristic district in Bangkok with Thailand’s leading large-scale real estate developer. Nicholas also has experience with strategic consulting and business analytics roles at startups, tech companies, and nonprofit organizations in the US and abroad. Nicholas is also passionate about architecture, art, and design. Over the years, he has received multiple awards and recognitions for his artwork, and his architectural SketchUp portfolio has received millions of downloads from the architecture community around the world. Nicholas also lives for aviation and is working towards earning his pilot’s license. At Stanford he leads the Stanford Real Estate Club and has participated in a variety of real estate competitions. Nicholas has engaged in a variety of teaching and mentorship programs, ranging from elementary school subject tutoring to high school writing workshops and college-level professional mentorship. One of his motivations to teach is to inspire students to be increasingly creative thinkers.

Mahlon Sorensen in a junior at Yale University, and a New York City native. At school, Mahlon studies history, with a particular focus on military history, international relations, and great power competition. He is a member of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, a year long program in which students study the classics and applications of strategy in the historical and contemporary realms. Mahlon is also a midshipman in the Yale Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, and accordingly, he will commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy upon graduation. He aspires to be a naval aviator and is hoping to be sent to pilot training for his first assignment. Besides his studies and NROTC, Mahlon is the President of the Yale Men's Rugby team.

Nadia is pursuing a degree in Environmental Engineering with a focus on renewable energy, set to graduate in the Spring of 2022. As the founder of her own alternative energy company with strong passion for international sustainable development, she also holds leadership positions in Princeton’s Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Africa Summit, Energy Association, and United Nations Association while also being an undergraduate student researcher with experience in carbon utilization and sustainable cement. She enjoys outdoor activities, such as backpacking, playing sports, and art ( including painting, drawing, and photography) where she maintains a social media platform to raise fundraisers for social advocacy groups through her art commissions.

Seba is studying Mechanical Engineering with a thermodynamics and fluids concentration at Stanford University. In 2010, Seba moved from Chile to Portland, Oregon, where graduated high school with highest honors. Since sophomore year of high school, Seba has been convinced that the climate and energy crises are as fascinating as they are the biggest existential threat to human and ecological existence. In his resulting pursuit of acquaintance and collaboration with the energy world, Seba has worked with three different labs across the country, most recently the Majumdar lab at Stanford. He has mostly focused on decarbonizing the production of hydrogen with applications in energy storage and direct air carbon capture, but has also founded projects to de-electrify vaccine supply chain refrigeration (funded by the Gates foundation) and to implement innovation- and creativity-based STEM curriculum in Chile (backed by the department of education). Most recently, he has been working for six months at a startup developing low cost, low emissions hydrogen production, in a device called an electrolyzer. He will continue to work with them part-time as he finishes his bachelor’s degree. Seba enjoys bouldering, playing soccer, and playing chess. He also writes and listens to poetry when he is feeling overwhelmed. Seba will focus on all kinds of chemistry, physics, and math projects, but will (of course) always have a special place in his heart for energy-related projects.

Jamie is pursuing a double major in Marketing and Information Systems with a minor in Chinese Studies at The Boston College Carroll School of Management. In 2018, she graduated as the student body president of her class at Hunter College High School, one of the most prestigious high schools in New York City. In her senior year of high school, Jamie won the David R. Friesner Award, a scholarship worth $10,000, for excelling in Spanish studies. Currently, Jamie works as the Marketing Lead for a VC-backed startup called Ladder, where she leads the social media and growth strategy to further expand the platform's number of users. On campus, she leads initiatives to advocate for increased resources for first generation students as the President of the First Generation Club of Boston College. At Curious Cardinals, Jamie hopes to share her passion for Marketing with students of all backgrounds and inspire them to dream big!

Akshay has wanted to invent since the fifth grade. What had started as doodles of cool futuristic inventions and mechanisms has evolved into grant-winning projects, like LLAMA-Q --- a way to control non-standard robotic mechanisms. This penchant for invention has let Akshay present different projects all over the country, from the Bay Area Maker Faire to MIT. He once spent three nights in a row printing and re-printing objects on his 3D printer to get it just right for a presentation. Akshay has also spent countless nights working on robots. Sometimes working for competitions like FIRST, in which his team held the top ten highest scores in Texas one year, and sometimes working on his projects, like RouXY --- a low-cost, low-stress router. He has worked in education as the director of projects for STEMpump --- a platform for student STEM education. Now, with Curious Cardinals, he hopes to influence young minds to invent and to make.

Annabelle is a rising sophomore at Stanford University considering majoring in Symbolic Systems. Prior to Stanford, she attended Milton Academy, where she graduated cum laude, led the Sustainability Board and Invest in Girls, was a head tour guide, peer tutored, and volunteered at a local elementary school. Her junior fall of high school, she attended Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, where she spent four months (without her cell phone!) learning about local ecology, working on the farm, and fostering her loves for connecting with others and with the natural world. For the past 2 years, Annabelle has been a team lead at The Farmlink Project, working to combat the issues of food insecurity, food waste, and climate change. Annabelle is most excited about finding real-world applications of whatever she's teaching or learning. In her free time, Annabelle loves to find outdoor adventures and experiment with new recipes.

A former state senate Campaign Manager and current policy researcher for a climate-focused policy organization in Rhode Island, Noah Glickman is passionate about the intersection of politics and social justice. Concentrating in American Studies and Behavioral Decision Sciences at Brown University, Noah has been learning about the micro forces that affect the our political and economic ecosystems. Noah is always on the lookout for learning opportunities. At Brown, Noah is an editor for the Brown Undergraduate Law Review, is a member of the University’s Lecture Board, and an active member of Brown’s ACLU chapter. He is currently involved in a project focused on extending educational opportunities at Brown to Rhode Island’s incarcerated population. As a trained dialogue facilitator, Noah appreciates the power of communication and didactic encounters in learning. He’s excited to connect with learners about their passions and learn with them!

Purav is a sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas. During his high school career, he participated in speech and debate extensively and loved advocating for policy changes. In his freshman year of college, he pitched his first startup called Tiremba to promote sustainability in the corporate world. To satiate his hunger for entreupeunership and engineering, he has worked with two other startups and an early stage venture studio to execute growth and marketing strategies. Couple years from now, he plans to launch his own company in the biotech sector. In 2021, he is part of the NASA L’Space Academy, leading a team of 11 to develop a probe that will float on Venus and measure atmospheric conditions. Over the summer, he plans to research on nanostructures and material applications in medicine. In his free time, you would see him playing Nintendo with his siblings, networking with other founders and bingeing anime. At Curious Cardinals, he wants to share his passion for math, engineering and entreupeunership and help other students with their problems, whether it be homework or life in general!

Charlotte is a junior at Northwestern University, double majoring in Computer Science and Dance with a minor in English Literature. Charlotte led the Peer Tutoring Program at Riverdale Country School and is now a Teacher's Assistant/ Peer Mentor for the Computer Science Department where she holds office hours, teaches weekly tutorial sessions and mentors her amazing students! She recently received the Spring 2020 Peter and Adrienne Barris Service Award for excellence in teaching. Specifically interested in Human Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, and App Development, she is also a member of WiC (Women in Computing) where she promotes her fellow Women in STEM. She sees CS as an intersection of logic and creativity —a fusion of math, puzzles, and art. Fluent in Spanish, Char also studied ethics, international policy, Arabic, and Mandarin in D.C. at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership. She has continued her studies with the school as a guest speaker in Shakespeare as well as a mentee of Carl Wilkens in Rwanda. Her biggest passion project is founding Mission S.P.A. (Sanitary Product Awareness), a non-profit that collects and donates sanitary products to local NYC shelters along with schools in Nepal. When Charlotte is not computing, dancing, or advocating for gender equity worldwide, she is training for triathlons, watching House, and cooking vegan pasta. Her eclectic academic interests match her enthusiastic, warm, and individualized approach to teaching, mentoring, tutoring, and learning.

Emily Schrader is a second-year student at Stanford University studying International Relations with a focus on international history and culture. In 2021, she put her interest for global affairs and intercultural exchange into action: She moved to Spain in April to study at the University of Salamanca, and spent the summer teaching conservation science to high school students in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. Last fall, she worked on integrating human rights and US foreign policy with an organization called Freedom House, interned on press freedom issues with Reporters Without Borders, and taught journalism to middle school students with Curious Cardinals. But her passion for advocacy across media platforms and cultural divides did not begin there. Emily spent years leading the gun control movement in the nation’s capital, organizing mass student walkouts and enlisting survivors to share their stories at the doorsteps of Congress. While editing her high school newspaper, she covered local issues with global implications: The Washington Post featured her political cartoon as the cover of their nationwide Snapchat, and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association recognized her investigation of the Church abuse scandal with a Gold Circle Award. In high school, Emily did anything from competing with the Chemistry team to attending a mushroom-foraging convention, and on campus, she read more philosophers than she can remember with the Structured Liberal Education program. She loves to paint (strictly for fun), read (as a passion, not a chore), and bake vegan desserts (tolerated by non-vegan siblings). An experienced tutor, she encourages students to follow passions and draw connections!