category: High School

Noah Davies-Mason

Noah Davies-Mason is currently a PhD student in Classics at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He earned his BA in Greek and Latin at Hunter College, CUNY summa cum laude in 2013, his MA in Classics at the Graduate Center in 2017, and his MPhil in Classics from the Graduate Center in 2019. He has presented six (6) papers on topics in Hellenistic poetry and philosophy at various professional conferences. All focus on the question of how poetry adopts or incorporates philosophical ideas, for instance, how the philosophy of Cynicism (exemplified especially in the famous character of Diogenes the Cynic) appears in the pastoral poetry of Theocritus, a simultaneously (or maybe alternately) rustic and lyric genre. He has organized two graduate student conferences at the Graduate Center, one on ancient drama and the other on ancient music. His dissertation, which he is currently working on, asks how the notion of silence manifests in poetic and philosophical texts from the Hellenistic period.

Noah Davies-Mason has been teaching and privately tutoring Latin, Ancient Greek, and topics in Greek and Roman culture in NYC since 2014. He regularly teaches Classics courses at Hunter College. These range from courses on Greek mythology to those introducing the ancient languages, or reading Homer in Greek, or Ovid in Latin. His goal in teaching and tutoring is to make these topics interesting and approachable to all students. The beauty of learning an ancient language is that you are temporarily liberated from the confines of your own cultural context and can find another world that you are free to explore as you please.

In addition to teaching and completing his degree, Noah is advisor and coordinator for the Solomon Bluhm Scholars program at Hunter College, a scholarship program for high achieving Classics majors. He helps to guide these students through their time at Hunter, taking them on field trips to local Classics events and advising them on course work and post-graduation plans. In his spare time, Noah likes to read more Greek and Latin, go rollerblading, play board games, and eat delicious food.

Stephen Sacchetti

After graduating from Haverford College in 2011 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics, Stephen Sacchetti’s passion for learning, understanding, and explaining the wonders of the field blossomed into a teaching and private tutoring career. Over the past ten years, Stephen has taught at three independent schools (Loomis Chaffee, Hopkins, and Blair Academy) covering courses in Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus, AP Calculus, and Applied Mathematics. His summers have been spent designing and delivering math content beyond the traditional classroom in Algebra 1, Geometry, and Calculus. Additionally, Stephen has experience helping students prepare for standardized tests including AP Calculus, SATs, and SAT subject tests for Math I and II. Whether during the school year or the summer, Stephen’s philosophy as a Math Specialist centers on understanding the why behind each mathematical idea.

In 2015, Stephen Sacchetti graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education with a Master’s in Education. The study of teaching and learning propelled his career into the realm of teacher education, where Stephen coached instructors in lesson planning, assessments, and research-based classroom strategies. This work broadened Stephen’s understanding of classroom teaching through observations in English, history, science, and French classrooms where he discovered which approaches transcended the math classroom and applied to all areas of learning. Since then, Stephen has been developing specific language and classroom techniques to help students see that critical reading, effective communication, and argument formation are common threads across all learning experiences.

Most recently, Stephen Sacchetti moved to Blairstown, NJ where he continues to work with teachers to hone their craft. While living in NJ, Stephen is available for Zoom tutoring, so geography is not an obstacle. In his spare time, Stephen enjoys playing badminton and board games and writing and solving puzzles with his wife (who also happens to be a math teacher).

Michael Kandel

Michael Kandel is a private tutor who specializes in standardized test preparation and math at all grade levels.

Michael graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in economics and a minor in mathematics. While at Penn, Michael worked as a research fellow in the political science department and began privately tutoring students in economics, math, and writing courses. It was also at Penn that Michael began his comedy career, performing in clubs and theaters around Philadelphia. Now based in New York, he continues to perform standup comedy around the city and write scripts for independent productions. His comedy pilot appeared and placed in the iTV Festival, and his screenplays have placed in several competitions as well, most recently the Red & Blue Screenwriting Contest.

For the past three years, Michael Kandel has taught math SAT and SHSAT prep courses full-time, helping over 200 students significantly improve their scores and gain acceptance to top-ranked universities and New York City public high schools. Before that, he developed and taught an SAT prep course at AECI Charter School in the Bronx. Michael also has experience as a private tutor, helping students of all grade levels and learning types in math, English, and writing, including for college essays.

Michael is a friendly, laid-back tutor who maintains a light, comfortable, and focused environment for the student. He lets the student lead the way through each session, working on larger problem areas with targeted, digestible lessons. He takes great pride and joy in seeing his students grow and achieve results beyond their expectations.

When he isn’t tutoring or writing comedy, Michael enjoys playing basketball and watching movies. He takes no joy in supporting Philadelphia-based sports franchises, but tragically does so anyway.

Victoria Cho

Victoria Cho is a writer, private tutor, and community advocate based in New York City. She is currently a Writing Consultant for Grace Church High School’s Writing Center, where she supports students with essay writing, creative writing, and college application statements.

Victoria uses a strengths-based, student-centered approach to support college and high school students with the written expression of their ideas. Her higher-order approach prioritizes an essay’s clarity and ability to compel. She has assisted students with every step of the writing process from creating an outline, building a thesis, adding analysis, examining paragraph structure, grammar and punctuation, to MLA formatting. She has also supported students with creative writing manuscripts, such as fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Her emphasis on the student’s needs and goals for their own work align with her belief in establishing a supportive and positive space for the student to explore, ask questions, and review the particulars of their words.

Victoria Cho is also experienced with supporting reading comprehension and AP exam and SAT verbal preparation. She helps students process reading passages in sections and review literary devices. As a creative writer, she is particularly a fan of engaging students through creative writing exercises to strengthen a student’s critical reading skills and recognition of literary elements, as well as to relieve stress and build confidence.

Victoria holds over seven years of experience working with high school students and previously directed a career- and college-readiness program for juniors and seniors at a community-based organization in New York City. The program helped students identify and pursue their educational and professional goals, enabling students to consider their passions, skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. In the program, Victoria provided individual mentoring that assisted students with: reviews of their academic performance; study habits; communication with teachers; and research of colleges. Her work alongside teachers and social workers has influenced her relationship building strategies with students.

Victoria Cho holds a Bachelor’s from Boston University’s College of Communications, from which she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She also holds a Master’s in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from University of New Orleans, where she received the Privateer Award.

Her creative writing has appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Collagist, Perigee, Quarter After Eight, Word Riot, and Mosaic. She is a Kundiman Fiction Fellow, a VONA/Voices alumna, and was Co-Fiction Editor of Apogee Journal. She has received a writing residency grant from Vermont Studio Center and has led creative writing workshops for New York Writers Coalition, a nonprofit that offers free creative writing workshops to under-served populations.

Szasha Ozard

As a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, Szasha Ozard draws on years of experience as a historian, Peace Corps volunteer, youth empowerment coach, certified Social Studies teacher, and research advisor to build confidence in her students and empower them to reach personal and academic success through private tutoring. She is passionate about bringing history alive by engaging with student interests and life experiences as a bridge to allow learners to draw meaningful connections between the past, themselves, and the modern world. Szasha works to help her students understand the events of the past and to achieve mastery of historical thinking and analytical writing skills. This allows learners to not only engage in the authentic work of historians and conduct successful research but to grow in their capacity as analytical global citizens.

Szasha Ozard holds a Master’s degree in the teaching of Social Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University and currently teaches 9th and 10th grade Global History as well as a 12th grade independent research seminar within the New York City Department of Education. She has taught in fully inclusive ICT special education classroom settings, differentiating instruction to meet the diverse needs of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), as well as in general education and advanced placement classrooms. She has vast experience preparing students to excel on the NYS Regents Exam in Global History and Geography as well as providing enrichment for advanced learners. Szasha guides 12th graders through a college level independent history research and writing seminar culminating in a final paper and school-wide presentation. Students are given the opportunity to respond to rigorous questions in defense of their research, modeling the process of researching, writing, and defending a history thesis at a college level.

As a 9th-12th grade advisor, Szasha Ozard also provides individualized socio-emotional and academic support. These supports include: coaching in study and organizational skills, assistance with strategies to improve executive functioning, and health and wellness check-ins focused on stress management and youth advocacy. She builds these same supports into her tutoring sessions.

Before becoming a Social Studies teacher, Szasha Ozard earned her B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, where she developed her passion for research — a passion she now works to foster in her students. After graduating, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English as a Foreign Language in the African nations of both Cape Verde and Mozambique. During her Peace Corps service, Szasha realized her calling for not only teaching, but youth empowerment. She brings both her global perspective and dedication to individual youth capacity building into her current teaching and tutoring practice.

In her free time, Szasha enjoys running, traveling, and working in her backyard organic vegetable garden. She has run several marathons and has trekked to both the base camp of Mount Everest and the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. At home, Szasha spends as much time as possible training her exuberant Australian Shepherd puppy who is always eager to learn new tricks!

category: High School

Noah Davies-Mason

Stephen Sacchetti

Michael Kandel

Victoria Cho

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Private Tutoring

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