BC Education Center

Aaron has been a math tutor for over 5 years, the last 3 of which have been spent at BrainChild Education Center. He attended the University of Washington where he graduated a full year early with a B.S. in Mathematics. During his time there, he participated in many academic ventures including the annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling, where he and two colleagues published an award-winning paper placing them in the top 5 contest-wide. He has earned perfect scores on the AP Calculus exam (BC), the math portion of the SAT I, as well as 800's in each of the SAT II math subject tests. Additionally, he is a two –time USA Math Olympiad Qualifier (USAMO).

Aaron is well-versed in teaching kids from as young as kindergarten, up and through all high school classes. He has taught the following courses: Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II/Trigonometry, Statistics (AP), Pre-Calculus, Calculus (AP: AB/BC), and all grade school level math subjects.

Camille has worked as an English Instructor at BrainChild Education Center for over two years. She entered the University of Washington at age 16 through the Academy for Young Scholars and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in both English and Public Health at age 20. With a passion for social justice, Camille has volunteered for several non-profit organizations, including the UW Pipeline Project and Broadview Emergency Shelter. Bilingual in English and Mandarin, she has also worked as a citizenship class teacher at Refugee Women’s Alliance and as a talk time instructor at the Chinese Information and Services Center (CISC). Camille is currently pursuing a J.D. at the University of Washington School of Law.

David has worked at BC Education Center as a technology instructor for the summer camp program and as a year-round English tutor. At the University of Washington, David majored in English, with honors, and Comparative Religion. His studies focused on linguistics, writing, literature, French and world religions. David has participated in various outreach programs, such as leading ESL conversation classes for International Scholars. Working with the students at BC, especially reading and coaching them on their essays, has been a highly rewarding and enlightening process for him.

In the past, Hao has taught Math at the Renton Technical College for a number of years. He founded BC Education Center in June 1995 and started teaching Math at the Center since then. Hao has helped hundreds of high-school students with their Math and has also developed a number of test-taking strategies to help SAT students take their tests more efficiently. In addition, he has also produced hundreds of SAT Math practice questions for the SAT prep course. In the past 15 years, his passion in teaching has assisted numerous SAT students entering the college of their dreams.

Jessica Wickwire graduated from Washington State University in August, 2009, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English. A creative writing enthusiast, with a passion for teaching, Jessica has been working as an English Tutor with BC Education since November, 2009, and has been working as an Educational Assistant with the Issaquah School District since January, 2010. Jessica is currently applying to Graduate School, as she hopes to pursue a Masters in Teaching.

In Karen’s adolescent years she found that her passion was writing. She attended the University of Washington and continued pursuing her zeal for the English language. She achieved a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Washington in 2008. Along with writing, she also enjoys working with children and has been tutoring them for many years. She has worked with children at V.B.S (Vacation Bible School) and also has experience in teaching personalized essay writing classes. For over two years, she has continued to work with children on improving English skills here at BC Education Center as an English tutor. She also teaches the Gifted Test Preparation classes here at the center and specializes in teaching Essay writing and editing.

Laura graduated with College Honors, Cum Laude, from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Drama and English literature. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and has helped spread the love of language to Seattle Public High School students through the Young Shakespeare Workshop. She hopes to continue on with her education by pursuing a master's degree either in Teaching, English, or Law.

Mark has been working with students in language arts for over three years. In addition to working with students in both middle- and high-schools throughout the Seattle area, Mark also works as writing tutor for the University of Washington, working with both undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of writing, and has spent time in South Africa working with students there in English and a variety of social justice-related issues. Mark believes that all students are good readers and good writers and seeks to draw out the strengths each and every one of them possess while getting them to employ these strengths to the varying demands of each reading and writing assignment. Mark also feels that there must be a connection between the classroom and real life and always seek to show this connection to students. Mark graduated cum laude from the University of Washington in 2006 with a B.S in psychology and a B.A. in English. He is currently in UW’s Master in Teaching Program for secondary school.

Mike Kelly has been teaching English to students of a variety of ages and backgrounds for over three years. At BC, Mike teaches the verbal and writing section of the SAT course, and regularly instructs high-school students in reading and composition as well as assists them in college planning. Mike graduated cum laude from the University of Washington with a double major in Honors English and Philosophy and, just to prove he's an etymology fanatic, a minor in Latin. Mike holds a TEFL teaching certificate and recently returned from teaching ESL at a public high school in Thailand. He brings his love of language and ideas to the classroom where he makes learning vocabulary and grammar both engaging and comprehensible. With his philosophical background in logic and argument, he coaches students on how to develop the imperative skills of critical reasoning and clear writing and how to apply these skills effectively in essays and on tests.

Paige has been a math tutor at BrainChild Education Center for the past four years. She earned both her B.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematical Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle campus. In July 2009, she earned a Master in Teaching degree from Seattle University. Paige is certified by Washington State to teach secondary math and is currently teaching Algebra and Geometry in the Seattle School District. She taught International Baccalaureate Calculus, both Standard Level and Higher Level courses, at Ingraham High School, named by Newsweek magazine as one of the top high schools in the U.S.

Sandy has been teaching Mathematics at BrainChild Education Center for over two years. She also has experiences in providing assistance to after-school programs and with one-on-one tutoring. She graduated from University of Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering. Currently, she is working towards a Master’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She is certified in Washington State Engineering in Training, 2009. Sandy studied the Integrated Mathematics Honor Program throughout her high school years, so she has experience in guiding students to understand the usefulness of mathematics in context-based problem and concepts. She encourages students to think analytically and be able to apply mathematical models into real life applications.

Tina graduated from the UW with a double degree in English and Human Resources, but she decided to pursue a career in teaching and enrolled in the Masters in Teaching program at UW. She graduated from the UW program in 2009 with a Masters in Teaching and is currently certified to teach English/language arts at the secondary level. Tina spent the last year substituting at various schools in the Renton School District and returned to Brain Child in the summer of 2010 to teach English at summer camp. This is her fourth year teaching at BC summer camp.

Highlights from Tina's college career include being one of the four-member winning team of the PriceWaterHouseCoopers X-treme accounting competition at UW, which had a prize of $1,000. She also was the president of the UW chapter of Habitat for Humanity her senior year at UW. Lastly, Tina spent three months as a Seattle City Council legislative intern for Councilmember Richard McIver.

Passionate about mathematics since he was a child, Victor has now been teaching math at BC Education Center for over 5 years. During his junior high and high school years, he represented his school in the Washington State Olympiad and participated in his school’s math team, placing 1st in the Lake Washington School District Math Olympiad two years in a row. Victor earned a perfect score on the AP Calculus AB exam and near perfect scores on the AP Chemistry exam and SAT I Math section. As a senior, he took part in the nationwide FIRST Robotics Competition in partnership with Microsoft. He graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, specializing in embedded systems and digital signal processing. During his years there, he designed various devices including an autonomous robot which placed 2nd in a competition.