Meet the Team

From the time she could speak, she could teach. Alexandra has recounted tales of creating a classroom at home in her playroom to teach her younger siblings the math she learned in her first-grade class, even though her pupils were too young to count to ten.

Alexandra's education began at The Shipley School, and she herself enrolled at ES as a student. Her SAT scores improved through her time at ES and she was able to secure a merit-based scholarship at her first choice school! Throughout her undergraduate and graduate experiences, she developed a great love for teaching elementary school students. After she finished her degrees, she returned to the Main Line to teach first grade for a local private school.

While teaching, Alexandra noticed a tremendous opportunity to help young children who were struggling to read. After she joined the ES team in 2008, Alexandra created ES’s Early Reading Program to help young children to learn to read with confidence. Over the years, families with small children requested her help with preparing their older children for standardized tests, especially those who needed extra help in reading. While Alexandra works with students with a range of academic abilities, she specializes in helping students with learning accommodations. Today, in addition to being an instructor, she is also the Director of Education; she trains her fellow instructors and monitors all students' progress.

Was Amanda born to teach? She didn't think so. While her mother was a college professor, she wanted to carve her own path in life. Instead, she chose to pursue the sciences. Different enough, right? Since, though, she also had a passion for writing (she won her first writing competition at the tender age of 7!), she decided to work at her college's writing center. It was only then that fate found her. She discovered that she truly enjoyed helping students grow and become more confident in their skills. She had found her calling.

As a lover of science, Amanda enjoys finding answers to the "whys" and "hows" of life. For instance, how can you quantify gravity, and why do we experience gravity on earth the way we do? She finds those questions fascinating. (She can also now explain that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...) Along those lines, she also greatly enjoys math since it is a powerful tool for understanding, quantifying, and describing scientific phenomena.

Amanda started off on a journey through the SATs which helped earn her a merit scholarship for college. She started studying chemistry, then quickly found physics to be her true passion. Insatiably, Amanda then pursued several graduate degrees in physics. Amanda enjoys taking a thorough, step-by-step approach with her students to connect concepts in theory to the real world. She also enjoys working with students of all academic abilities to assist them in building on their foundational knowledge to achieve their best performance.

Angela loves puzzles. She has always been drawn to math and biology since both require a person to think through steps and concepts, similar to solving a puzzle. She is especially passionate about biology since she has a love for animals and nature. Her studies in both math and biology have helped her develop a deeper understanding for how much of the world works. When she noticed her peers in an anatomy class in college were not catching on to the material as easily, she worked quickly to organize a study group. When her peers from the study group noticed the positive impact of their time together, Angela knew she was onto something. She then led study groups for nearly all her science and math classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her peers were succeeding (as was she, graduating Cum Laude and as a University Honors Scholar), and she was enjoying teaching. Her love for teaching brought her to ES, and her passion for the subject matter has propelled her onto her current path to become a veterinarian.

Of course, she would not be Angela if her passions ended there. She also enjoys classic literature such as Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters; these works sparked her passion for English and essay writing. Before she joined ES, she was a writing consultant assisting students with their undergraduate- and graduate-level writing. In all the subjects she tutors, she enjoys using her problem-solving mind to help students solve their own academic puzzles. She implements a student-directed approach in which they work together to determine where the student has opportunity to improve and what the best approach may be. She empowers her students and utilizes interactive strategies so that they learn that studying can be fun!

Avery graduated from the Episcopal Academy with the John Andrews Harris Writing Prize after publishing several times in the Atlantic Monthly. He attended Trinity College as a James Lippincott Goodwin Fellow, and continued to publish extensively through college and separately as a news reporter.

Avery taught English Literature, Creative Writing, Algebra I & II, and Geometry to seniors and juniors at the Agnes Irwin School for two years before returning to Bryn Mawr College for graduate work in psychology. He founded Educational Services nearly fifty years ago, and continuously served as Director until summer 2016 when he decided to retire (or at least partially- he couldn't stay away!). Avery can still often be found at the St. David's Office and serves as an Expert Consultant for all matters related to standardized testing and the college process.

Bryan was recruited to play soccer for Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU), and was also offered a merit-based scholarship for his notable performance on his ACT.  As a student athlete, Bryan juggled the demands both on the field and in the classroom. While adept in all areas of academics (especially math), he decided to pursue two of his biggest passions: Spanish and writing. Bryan studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain which helped him to earn one of his degrees in Spanish Literature.

Upon his return to the United States, Bryan became a Spanish tutor for the Modern Foreign Languages Department at OWU. Even after his graduation from college, Bryan felt so connected to the language that he became a high school Spanish teacher. After a few years of teaching, Bryan and his family relocated to the Main Line. In search of an opportunity to continue his love for Spanish, writing, and teaching, he found ES. Once he joined the ES team in 2007, he jumped back into the world of math and is able to break any concept down for his students. He also is a go-to resource on our team for math tricks!

Carrie comes from a family full of teachers. As a 10th grader, Carrie was one of the only students in her Geometry class to understand proofs. As such, she found an opportunity to begin her teaching career assisting her classmates to ensure everyone was comfortable with their Geometry skills. From then on, she was a go-to resource for all her classmates, and her future was seemingly decided.

She is also very passionate about art, particularly film and different styles of photography. She decided to pursue a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography and put the idea of teaching to the side. Funnily enough, she continually assisted all her photography peers in bettering their work-- she could not seem to leave teaching behind. Carrie is also a published poet in various literary magazines, and is passionate about the power of language and student achievement.

Today, she holds three Masters Degrees and continues to learn with every opportunity. Drawing on her background in Special Education, she reviews and rewrites IEPs and 504s, as well as coaches and educates other teachers in how to support students with varying needs. While she is skilled in working with students who have a range of learning differences, she enjoys working with students of all academic abilities. At ES, She takes every opportunity to personalize lessons for each of her students and shares her joy and excitement to maintain their motivation.

When Drew graduated from Radnor High School, his parents sent him off to college with the hope that he might become a lawyer or a consultant. Instead, his love of academia developed into a love for teaching. After graduating, Drew pursued his passions through a year of residency at two public schools in the north of France as an English instructor. He was amazed by his students’ capacity to learn and by their endless zeal for exploring any trace of American culture. Today, Drew wonders why all of his students aren’t equally as captivated by his old Little League baseball pictures.

Although he is a lover of the French language and the humanities at heart, he is gifted in a multitude of academic areas. As a National Merit Scholar and winner of the Gardner Prize for excellence in French (an accolade awarded to the French department at Vanderbilt’s top performing senior), along with his background in quantitative public policy, he offers his students a range of expertise to suit a variety of needs.

Drew’s teaching style is flexible, as he has experience tutoring students from the middle school level in remedial English all the way through advanced college-level calculus courses. He is known for being approachable, open to all questions, and thorough; for him, like the rest of our team, teaching is a pleasure. He seeks to inspire all his students to find their passions in the classroom, as he did.

At age 11, Jodi's "school" for reading and writing was open for business. She had one student: her little brother. When he succeeded, her imaginative endeavor set the tone for her entire professional future: she was born to teach.

Before joining the ES team, Jodi co-founded a non-profit organization in Philadelphia that benefitted under-served youth. More specifically, the organization offered elementary and middle school students an after-school program which provided both a safe space and additional opportunities to learn. To say her heart is in her work is an understatement.

In all her years as a classroom teacher, she has worked with students who possess a range of abilities and who struggle with learning for a variety of reasons, including emotional disturbances, learning differences, and physical challenges. She establishes a rapport based on trust and respect, then learns the students' interests and priorities to make the information she teaches relatable. Understanding that mental health has become an increasingly important topic, she offers her students mindfulness tactics, patience, and a caring shoulder of support.

Since a strong foundation for learning is critical, Jodi thoroughly enjoys discovering her students' thought processes so that she can present information in a way they will best understand. She believes learning should be fun and appropriately challenging, and inspires her students to find confidence in their own abilities. She feels strongly that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and that each student is capable of finding their own success.

As one of Avery's daughters, Julia grew up in the waiting room of ES working on SATs instead of coloring books (don't worry, she thought it was fun!). At The Shipley School, Julia was honored as a National Merit Commended Scholar. Thereafter, she formally enrolled as a student with ES to hone her skills, and that she did! During her college process, Julia’s SAT score helped to solidify her acceptance to a top-ranking business school.

During her collegiate studies, Julia had the opportunity to study abroad and live with a host-family in Montpellier, France. She enjoyed her time so much that she decided to re-immerse herself in the French culture and move to Paris. She interned for an advertising agency in the second arrondissement the summer before her graduation. After her graduation, Julia spent years working in management and customer service for a Fortune 500 company.

Today, Julia is often the first point of contact when families come to ES. Julia enjoys getting to know each family, as well as helping students to feel comfortable with the preparation process. Her main goals are to ensure families feel informed, to create a solid preparation plan and timeline for each student, and to be a consistent point of contact for questions. Not wanting the French dream to end, she also actively shares her passion for the language by tutoring ES students in French. Lastly, Julia is responsible for everything behind the scenes to keep ES running smoothly.

Julia was born to write. While in high school at Academy of Notre Dame de Namur, she was invited to attend the New English Young Writers Conference at Middlebury College’s famous Bread Loaf Campus, as well as Susquehanna University’s Advanced Writers Workshop. She later won a national gold medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for a short story and was honored at Carnegie Hall. For some, that might suffice; for Julia, though, that was just the beginning of her writing journey.

After graduating from high school with honors (and scoring 5's on all eight of her AP Tests!), she went on to spend her next four years at an Ivy League university. She won writing prizes her sophomore, junior and senior years and crafted two senior theses, each more than 30,000 words. One explored recent translations of Japanese novels into English and the other was a novella. She also worked as the Editor-in-Chief for The Nassau Literary Review, Princeton University’s undergraduate literary magazine. Throughout her time with the magazine, Julia mentored student writers, edited their work, and published bi-annual 70-page magazines. Beyond her writing skills, Julia also graduated from college with honors.

For years she has mentored students in middle school, high school, and college through seminars, workshops, camps, and organizations to help them strengthen and polish their thoughts on paper. She is also the oldest of five children and has helped each of her siblings with various writing assignments, from English class essays to college essays. To date, her work has been included in twenty-five scholarly, creative, and magazine publications. In addition to being a specialist for ES, she is also a reader and webmaster for the literary magazine Chestnut Review. Julia is passionate about the written word, and truly enjoys sharing her passion with her ES students.

Julie is full of passion. Teaching, writing, musical theater, foreign languages, plants... you name it! She is a self-proclaimed "musical/theater nerd" and loves to entertain and delight those around her.  After her high school grades and SAT score earned her a merit scholarship to an honors college, she chose to bolster her translation skills with multiple language courses and cultural clubs, while volunteering as an American-culture and English tutor. Before joining ES, she had worked for an international logistics company, relocating families around the globe, and served in AmeriCorps, teaching English and Spanish in a bilingual middle school.

Julie's style of working involves analyzing various facets of concepts and translating them into language that resonates with her individual students. Julie prides herself on responding to the individual styles of learning that benefit each student, encouraging clear expectations and respectful feedback, and building strong rapport with everyone she meets.

Melisa has been a life-long politics and history fan. She excelled in History and high school and decided to follow her passion. After earning her undergraduate degree in Political Science, she knew she wanted to spread her passion through teaching and decided to earn a Masters of Education. Since 2007, Melisa has been teaching AP US History at a local high school and has been asked to be AP US History Reader (this is a high honor which allows her to score national AP US History exam essays)!

Melisa learned of ES from the murmurings of her students and realized how many students she would be able to help if she were to join our team- it was not long before she became part of our family. Melisa greatly appreciates the opportunity to mix her passion with her desire to help students learn and appreciate the relevance of US history to today's world. She also thoroughly enjoys assisting younger students and those with special needs in various academic areas.

Some people are innately good at art, athletics or history; Vic is innately good at math. When asked to describe himself, "quantitatively-oriented" is his first descriptor. He is truly taken with the subject and has an insatiable curiosity to learn more. While in high school, he completed coursework in the maths and sciences which are far beyond the scope of the average high school student. He achieved several perfect scores on his AP Tests and Subject Tests in STEM-related topics (and a 780 on his SAT math, without preparation!). He noted that his classmates were not always as comfortable with the content of their math classes, so he learned to break concepts down to their most basic foundations for his friends. He continued his passion for math throughout his undergraduate and graduate ventures earning degrees in Mathematics and Applied Statistics, and always found ways to continue teaching.

He has been a professional tutor for more than 10 years, and works with students who span a wide range of academic abilities, ages, and personal interests. If you do not initially enjoy math or feel you are not math-oriented, Vic will find a way to enthuse you! He injects humor and real-world examples into his teaching to make material easier to understand. Outside the classroom, Vic enjoys playing chess, xiangqi (Chinese chess), travelling locally to explore new areas, folding origami, and spending time in Cape May.