Unlock Your Potential with Tailored 1:1 Tutoring

Pratishta graduated with a Bachelor’s from UCLA and a Master’s from New York University. Professionally, Pratishta is the Assistant Director of Beyond Akeela, where she oversees a residential summer college readiness program for neurodivergent teens. She has led numerous workshops on mock interviews, resume development, writing an effective college essay, and creating a road map from high school to college. She has helped 30+ students get accepted to the University of California Berkeley and New York University, among others. 

Pratishta’s passion for admissions counseling comes from her belief that every person has a unique, awesome story waiting to be shared. However, she acknowledges that effectively presenting these strengths can be challenging. Pratishta’s affinity for admissions counseling stems from her own journey of navigating the process alone. She gained invaluable insights, and it brings her immense joy to pay it forward by guiding students toward realizing their aspirations.

Pratishta’s teaching style focuses on strengths and building a strong relationship first. She is easy-going and loves having fun and getting to know every person she connects with. Pratishta thrives on structure and loves letting applicants take the lead while providing a lot of scaffolding. As a coach, Pratishta believes in meeting students where they are and helping them reach their best, helping them hone in on what they want to improve, and offering clear solutions to make progress together. Pratishta excels at breaking down tasks effectively into smaller steps, getting the difficult tasks out of the way first, and building in short breaks and fun activities during sessions. 

Outside of coaching, Pratishta loves to box, cook, hike, kayak, and discover amazing restaurants. She’s also an avid adventure sports fan and has been skydiving and bungee jumping.

Kevin earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, followed by a second Master’s degree from Northwestern University. He has over five years of experience as an educator and has served as an Admissions Counselor at Northwestern University and North Park University. Throughout the years, he has assisted over 600 students with their college applications.

As an admissions counselor, Kevin enjoys working with and guiding students through the application process. He was fortunate enough to have a sibling who went through the college application process before he attended college, but he knows that not every student is as lucky as he was. Kevin looks forward to assisting students through the process so they have the best chance of being accepted by their dream school! 

As a coach, Kevin is known for his empathy, understanding, and student-focused approach. His ability to stay calm in any situation, depth of knowledge, and reassuring affirmations ease students’ worries about their application. Kevin deeply cares about each student’s success and quickly builds rapport, creating a comfortable environment for sharing concerns and issues. Despite his friendly demeanor, he sets clear and concise goals and expectations to keep students on track.

One of Kevin’s greatest strengths as a coach is his ability to break down the application process into manageable pieces, empowering students to take ownership of their learning—a process he calls guided discovery. Through positive reinforcement and motivation, he ensures each student reaches their full potential.

In his free time, Kevin enjoys working out, reading, and completing puzzles. Some interesting facts about Kevin are that he learned to ice skate at only three years old and he met the President of Ireland and played with his dogs!

Saied holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Rutgers University and a Master of Science in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. He also has a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) from Cambridge University. Saied has over eight years of experience as a tutor and has helped hundreds of high school and college students. His passion for tutoring began during his childhood in the Jamaican school system, where he experienced the opportunity to substitute for a mathematics teacher for three months.

Saied specializes in ACT and SAT tutoring, all math courses from Pre-Algebra to Calculus II, and English composition. His passion for tutoring is driven by his love for imparting knowledge and helping students master the world of mathematics. Engaging in one-on-one interactions, understanding each student's learning style and interests, and presenting content in a way that resonates with them and sparks those light bulb moments are what continually motivates him to strive for excellence as an educator.

Saied's tutoring style is characterized by a dynamic partnership with students. In the initial conversation, he strives to understand each student's preferred learning style and identifies any knowledge gaps they may have. Based on this assessment, he develops a customized plan to address their needs. Recognizing that some mathematical topics can be abstract, Saied incorporates real-world applications to solidify concepts and encourage students to apply what they have learned. By fostering this iterative process, Saied nurtures mathematical maturity and helps students make connections between different mathematical ideas, informing his approach to introducing new content. What truly drives Saied is witnessing his students' success, confidence, and motivation. Students' genuine smiles of accomplishment further fuel his passion for assisting others in achieving their academic goals.

Saied's greatest strengths as a tutor lie in his background in applied mathematics, which enables him to present content in a relevant and applicable way. He ensures students grasp the core foundations necessary to tackle any mathematical challenge. Additionally, Saied is skilled at pushing his students to excel. During tutoring sessions, his primary focus is ensuring the concepts are deeply understood and internalized so that when presented with external content-related problems, students glide through with ease. 

When he isn’t tutoring, Saied enjoys hiking, chasing beautiful skylines and waterfalls, and learning new skills. He is certainly one for adventure, as he swam with sharks when he was only 13 years old and has been skydiving!