category: High School

Claudia Sol Morgan

June 10, 2019

Claudia Sol Morgan is a Spanish and Dance teacher in New York City. She teaches group lessons at AltSchool and Joel Salsa and also works as a private Spanish tutor. With 8 years of experience teaching students of all ages and skill levels, Claudia is able to customize her lessons and help students succeed in the four communication competencies: speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Claudia was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico where she completed her Bachelor’s degree in psychology at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León and did her fellowship as a Psychologist at the UANL Clinic in Mexico.

She began studying English in 2009 after being invited to teach dance in the United States. She moved to Milwaukee, WI in 2012 and along with teaching dance, she discovered great enthusiasm for teaching her native language. She taught Spanish to children, teenagers and adults for five years before relocating to New York City in 2016.

Having gone through the process of learning a second language, Claudia feels sincere empathy for the challenge her students face and aims to help them build not only language skills but confidence and a sense of achievement.

When not teaching Spanish, Claudia can be found teaching and practicing dance of all kinds and also enjoying the art, food and streets of New York City.

Kayla Hoyer

June 10, 2019

Kayla Hoyer holds a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and is currently an international development professional at a large multi-national non-profit organization where she specializes in the costing of education programs for children in conflict and emergency settings.

Kayla has had experience teaching learners of a variety of ages, from 4 to 24, and from a large variety of backgrounds and cultures. While at Michigan, she was a Graduate Student Instructor who taught two classes of undergraduates on German Fairy Tales and Literature. Her classes included non-traditional ages, international students, as well as those who needed special assistance. Prior to graduate school, she taught English to Kindergartners in northern Thailand and to newly arrived immigrants and refugees in Columbus, Ohio. Together, these experiences catalyzed her interest in education in international development and led her to the non-profit industry.

In addition to her formal teaching experience, Kayla was also a full-time nanny for several summers while obtaining her BA in International Studies. As a private nanny, she cared for the children full-time, took them on educational field trips, and encouraged them to read and learn about new topics. By the end of each summer, each child was able to read beyond the grade they were entering. Through these experiences, Kayla has learned a philosophy of patience and encouragement while teaching. She has experience making lesson plans that are exciting and enticing while ensuring the students have a full grasp of the subject matter before moving forward.

Kayla is available for executive function coaching and private tutoring for students ages 10+ in Reading and Literacy, Writing, and Math (through Calculus) as well as standardized test preparation, including the ACT, SAT, and ISEE.

Kayla’s favorite past times are going to the gym, yoga, spending time outside, learning French, and exploring the city. She can often be found with her nose in a book and a coffee in-hand.

Jacob Backer

Since graduating Yale University in 2014, Jacob has been providing private tutoring in the greater New York City area including both acceleration and remediation. Jacob’s strengths rest in his ability to encourage students to achieve their academic potential and ease the anxiety that comes with standardized testing.

Jacob thinks it is important to create a comfortable learning environment for students. Students need to be encouraged to push themselves and will never do so if they are afraid of failure. He believes in a steady and encouraging approach that focuses on building a student’s confidence as well as their academic skills.

For over 4 years, Jacob has helped students prepare for various standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, SSAT and ISEE. He has worked in a wide range of subjects including Algebra, Geometry, US and Global History, Living Environment, and English.

Jacob also has extensive experience working with struggling students and helping seemingly unmotivated or apathetic youth to reengage with academics. He is able to skillfully assess students’ academic needs and fill in gaps in their education. Jacob helps struggling students build the confidence necessary for academic success; once a student believes they can handle the work they have been assigned, they are far less likely to avoid it. His work with students includes supporting and developing enhanced skills for organization, essay writing, and note taking.

Jacob was a strong test taker in high school, earning a score of 5 on all of his AP exams as well as several perfect and near perfect SAT scores. He earned his undergraduate degree in History from Yale University and graduated with honors.

Outside of tutoring, Jacob is a musician and producer. He is a multi instrumentalist, composer and songwriter who records his own music and performs around New York City. He approaches teaching with the same passion and energy that he brings to his music.

Angeline Gonyea

Angeline Gonyea began privately tutoring nine years ago in college, guiding first generation Latino students through their homework and teaching their parents conversational English. She has been tutoring youth ever since ranging across a wide range of subject areas, including the humanities, math, biology, chemistry, and Spanish. Through her training in a mentoring program, Angeline practices the importance of praising youth for the work they do, instead of praising youth for how smart they are.

Angeline graduated with a triple concentration in Economics, International Studies, and Spanish from the University of Michigan. After learning about quality of life through a broad lens, Angeline wanted to improve people’s lives in a more direct and healthful way. She went to a health-supportive culinary school, Natural Gourmet Institute, and worked as an allergist specialist and personal chef. She segued into teaching early morning pilates classes and was rated on Classpass as Top Ten Pilates Instructors in NYC for 2018. Currently, Angeline is taking science classes in order to apply to medical school.

Angeline’s goal is to teach material in creative and productive ways. She divides material into manageable pieces, goes through lots of practice problems, and recaps material to finish. As a continuing student herself, she has many test taking strategies, and specializes in Chemistry and Biology at the high school and college level.

She has worked extensively with students with autism and ADHD, which has included executive function coaching. Angeline incorporates motivational interviewing techniques into tutoring. By using reflective listening and open-ended questions, she gives students the opportunity to speak about their motivations and discover how important their goals are to them. Angeline helps students develop unfaltering patience with subject matter and staying focused for longer periods of time with genuine interest and enthusiasm.

In her free time, Angeline enjoys reading, meditating, yoga, and embroidering. She also leads a Mind Body Hour with psychiatric patients at Weill Cornell, and she serves as a health coach for veterans in NYU Langone’s Goals for Eating and Moving Lab.

Allen Lipson

Allen Lipson is a dynamic and versatile educator eager to meet students’ diverse needs. With a record of success within formal and informal education, a passion for academic and testing excellence, and a broad range of interpersonal career experience, Allen brings a unique background to his private tutoring work. He specializes in math, reading, writing, and standardized test preparation.

Allen graduated in May 2015 from a rigorous dual-degree program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary summa cum laude at both schools with Bachelors’ in Economics and Rabbinic Literature, respectively. His test results include a perfect 340/340 on the Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning GREs, a 1570/1600 on the SATs, an 800/800 on the Math 2, U.S. History, and World History SAT-II’s, and a 5/5 on nine A.P. exams, including Statistics and Electrical and Mechanical Physics.

Allen has relished sharing his excitement for education over a span of ten years. His test prep experience includes one-on-one coaching in GED math for non-native English speakers, group lessons in GED English for classes of twenty or more adults, and SAT and state test tutoring for high school students. Beyond academia, Allen teaches seventh-grade Hebrew school classes on Jewish history and literature and mentors young teenagers for their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. He worked three summers at a sleepaway camp as an integration counselor for campers with autism.

Currently, Allen teaches public courses as a year fellow at the Hadar Institute, a progressive Jewish research center. His previous role as a union organizer stressed the importance of building one-on-one connections with workers of diverse ages and backgrounds. Before organizing, Allen was a financial consultant for AXA, the global finance firm, where he practiced fine attention to detail through project management.

Outside of work, Allen is an avid reader of literature and philosophy, an amateur runner, and a passable cook.

category: High School

Claudia Sol Morgan

Kayla Hoyer

Jacob Backer

Angeline Gonyea

Allen Lipson

Company Overview

Private Tutoring

Test Preparation

College Counseling