Our Team
Founders
Joshua Heller
I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University with a B.S. in Physics and minors in Mathematics and Philosophy. During this time, I worked in the high-energy physics lab performing research for the CERN particle collider and LZ dark matter detector. After college, I spent several years in Pittsburgh, PA as a private tutor and as Director of Operations at a test prep and college counseling company.
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Course-specific tutoring, standardized test prep, and general academic support all fall under my umbrella of competency. I work with students from elementary school through college, in-person and virtually, and at all levels of achievement. I am experienced with teaching to a diverse array of learning differences, including ADHD, OCD, anxiety, sensory disorders, and autism. I achieved perfect scores on the ACT (36) and updated SAT (1600).
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From elementary arithmetic to advanced calculus, the spark of new understanding in a student’s eyes inspires me. The wellbeing of our students is my constant priority, and I am committed to supporting each student and family with tenacity and optimism.
. In my free time, I am an artisan bread baker, aspiring woodworker, and enthusiastic rock climber. Like my students today, I am well-acquainted with the challenges of balancing academic responsibilities with social and personal ambitions. Tension between the momentum towards a brainy physics career and a desire for meaningful interpersonal service was a steady theme throughout my student years. During this time, my concerted hope was to find a role that unified the intellectual and relational sides of life. When I graduated college, I turned down offers for jobs in research and engineering in favor of tutoring. Since then, the moments I have shared with many wonderful students have resolved any uncertainty about my vocation as a teacher.
Zoe Eden Hertz
I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Anthropology, and a minor in Education Studies.
My past experiences range from a teaching apprenticeship at a research daycare to Springboard Fellow with Hillel JUC at Carnegie Mellon University. Working at many levels of the educational system has illustrated to me how successful teaching places the individual student as the focal point of a complex mosaic that includes all important aspects of their life - academics, extracurriculars, family, and community.
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As an educator, I understand that my work with students fits into this larger picture. The competence a student gains in our time together can transcend the classroom, especially when we focus on foundational skills, such as language learning, personal storytelling, or improved writing. This has led me to prioritize a student’s sense of comfort, positive self-esteem, and intrinsic drive when tackling coursework and classroom-adjacent goals.
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I also serve as a Lead Educator at Camp Tawonga’s Bay Area B’nai Mitzvah program, as a Judaic Studies teacher at Beth El synagogue in Berkeley, and as a freelance parenting educator.
. My experiences living in Israel, Philadelphia, Boston, Copenhagen, Pittsburgh (PA), and now the California Bay Area exposed me to various educational values and methods, each showing me an aspect of what good education can offer. These have led me to become uniquely passionate about education and its power to scaffold a child’s life into one full of curiosity, love of learning, and tangible abilities. A student’s interest in learning blossoms when they understand the significance of what they are learning and how it will be relevant in their future. I guide my students towards answering these central questions for themselves so they can gain all that education has to offer. When not working, I am cooking soups and stews, writing novels, and traveling. Creating and partaking in community gatherings bring me joy and meaning. It is during these adventures that I do observational research for my next book.
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