About THE CHERNIK GROUP

Abra Chernik, M.A., M.Litt.
Abra grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She went to The Hewitt School, an independent school for girls, and was a nationally competitive gymnast before attending Middlebury College as an English major. At Oxford University, where she spent her junior year as a visiting scholar, she studied Milton and Shakespeare. Abra graduated from Middlebury summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with High Departmental Honors. 

She has a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Oregon State University and a Master of Letters degree in Literary Nonfiction and Dramatic Writing from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English.

Abra founded The Chernik Group in NYC in 1999 after returning to Manhattan following graduate school. She quickly became known for helping struggling students reach their potential, for her unique approach to writing exceptional college application essays, and for her transformational work with writers of all ages. In 2008, Abra began offering The Chernik’s Group’s services virtually, expanding the practice to clients everywhere.

In addition to directing The Chernik Group and working with clients, Abra is a published author who has written essays, plays, and screenplays. She is currently writing a memoir. Abra is also devoted to animal rescue.

Tara Dankel, Ph.D.
Tara graduated from Georgetown University with a dual Bachelor’s-Master’s Degree in Foreign Service and Arab Studies. She then worked for two years as the Managing Editor of the International Journal of Middle East Studies before beginning her doctoral work at Harvard University, where she earned a Ph.D. in Religion and Society. Her dissertation, To Become Again What We Never Were: Foucault and the Politics of Transformation, focused on how our everyday world shapes us as ethical actors, and how we can strive to better ourselves and our society.

As a teaching fellow at Harvard, where she was a two-time recipient of the Bok Center Excellence in Teaching Award, and then as a Professor of the Humanities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Tara has taught across and between disciplines. She has also been a featured speaker at SUTD’s Pedagogy Day, a forum exploring innovative approaches to teaching and learning. She seeks to empower students with strategies and methods for continued success not only in school, but also in their lives and careers.

She has published and presented scholarly work on the practice of reflecting on our biases and assumptions, the ethics of technology, and human-centered design.

Tara grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she was the valedictorian of William Allen High School and the first member of her family to attend college. In her free time, Tara loves to read, dance, have philosophical conversations with her cat, and travel. 

Rachel Skelton, M.D. candidate
Rachel graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Global Health. While an undergrad, Rachel conducted research at the Chilkoti lab in Duke’s Biomedical Engineering Department in thermo-reactive nanoparticle treatments for cancerous tumors. She also collaborated with physicians at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center of Duke Hospital as part of her work testing nanoparticles she created on brain tumor cell lines. Rachel continued her research in nanoparticle design in the Biomedical Engineering laboratory of the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York, where she trained doctoral students and undergrads in techniques of biomedical engineering. She is currently a medical student at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn.

While at Duke, Rachel worked as a community tutor for middle and high school students in Durham, providing standardized test prep as well as instruction in biology and math. After graduation, she was trained in and provided applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy to children with learning differences, including ADHD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, language and comprehension delays, memory encoding and recall deficits, and social behavior challenges. During the course of this work, she discovered a passion for making skill acquisition and academic goals more attainable.

Rachel relocated frequently while growing up, but she considers Irvine, California, her hometown. Now a New Yorker, she enjoys swing dancing, painting, watching movies, and exploring the city.

Jason Li, M.D.
Jason graduated with honors from Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. in Human Biology. While at Stanford, he pursued a variety of academic interests, from public health and medicine to English, creative writing, and anthropology. Jason won the Stanford Award of Excellence, given for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university, as well as a Special Achievement Award for his contributions to the Asian American community. Jason also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Journal of Public Health and was named an American Junior Academy of Science Lifetime Fellow.

After graduation, Jason spent a year as a U.S. Fulbright Fellow in China, where he conducted research on village-based health interventions to address child and maternal health disparities.

Jason then attended medical school at Harvard. In addition to his studies, he spearheaded a narrative medicine and youth empowerment project, worked as a researcher in the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Lab, and served as the Harvard Center for Primary Care Student Leader. He also published widely in scholarly journals. Jason is now in the first year of his psychiatry residency.

Jason has always been passionate about education, mental health, and working with young people and their families. He fell in love with teaching while volunteering as a peer high school tutor for students struggling in math and English courses at his large public high school. As a Stanford undergraduate, he was selected to be a university teaching fellow in a variety of courses, worked as a peer counselor, and served as a founding member, writer, and facilitator at Stanford CHIPAO (Communication Health Interactive for Parents of Adolescents and Others), which offered culturally-tailored, theater-based mental health workshops across California and was featured on NPR and Public Radio International. When working with students, Jason focuses on who each student is, who they want to become, and the skills, insights, and habits they will need to cultivate in order to get there. Nurturing each student’s goals and sense of self gives his teaching purpose.

Jason grew up outside of Los Angeles and now resides in Boston.  In his free time, he enjoys discovering new music, exploring neighborhoods, and reading and writing fiction and poetry.

Andra Pascu-Lindner, Ph.D.
Andra graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, with a B.A. in International Politics and Economics. During her undergraduate studies, she attended Sciences Po Paris as an exchange student. Andra then earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Rice University in Houston. Her dissertation research focused on the effect of gender stereotypes on evaluations of political candidates in Western Europe.

Andra is an experienced university instructor as well as a private tutor and academic performance coach. Her approach to teaching is holistic, inclusive, and student-focused. She believes each student possesses a unique set of skills that can be leveraged for success and also that all students can benefit from learning new skills and strategies to enhance learning. She views her role as that of a mentor who supports students as they challenge themselves, grow, and transform.

Fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Romanian, Andra grew up in Romania. She moved to Vancouver Island at the age of 16 to complete the International Baccalaureate Program at Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific, where she lived and learned alongside 100 other students hailing from all corners of the world. Outside of teaching and continuing her writing and research, Andra enjoys cooking, hiking, skiing, and spending time with her husband and their two cats.

Lauren Weindling, Ph.D.
Lauren graduated magna cum laude with honors from Brown University, where she earned a B.A. in Comparative Literature. At Brown, Lauren won the Rosalie Colie Prize for the highest degree of excellence in Comparative Literature for her senior thesis. Lauren then earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Southern California (USC). She is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at the University of Toronto.

 Lauren has published numerous scholarly articles on Renaissance drama, especially Shakespeare. Her forthcoming monograph is entitled Thicker Than Water: Blood, Affinity, and Hegemony in Early Modern Drama.

In addition to her research, Lauren is a dedicated educator committed to creating active, collaborative, and empowering learning spaces. While completing her doctoral studies at USC, Lauren earned the General Education Graduate Assistant Teaching Award and served as a teaching fellow at the Center for Excellence in Teaching. Lauren is passionate about helping students take ownership of their learning goals, grow as writers and critical thinkers, cultivate skills and habits that will serve them throughout both their academic careers and professional lives, and become literate consumers of the media and rhetoric that surrounds us all each day.

Lauren grew up in Nashville, where she attended the University School of Nashville, and in Jacksonville, where she graduated from the Bolles School. When not teaching or writing, Lauren can be found cooking, exploring new cuisines, or walking her corgi-chihuahua, Raymond.

Ali Zimmerman Zuckerman, Ph.D.
Ali graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. Though she initially planned to major in mathematics, her eclectic interests soon led her to courses in psychology, sociology, and literature, and eventually to a concentration in Folklore and Mythology, where she found an intellectual home studying folk tales and fairy tales. In graduate school, Ali continued to study the cultural and psychological implications of our most familiar cultural stories. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota writing her dissertation about the rehabilitation of “wicked witches” in modern film and literature.

Ali always knew she would become a teacher. Her pedagogy prioritizes meeting students where they are; taking a holistic, whole-person approach; and using the daily tasks and challenges of academia to help students become more reflective, articulate, and confident. As both a university professor and private tutor, she is experienced supporting multicultural and neuro-diverse learners. She loves helping students tell their stories, discover their strengths, and tap into their true potential.

Ali grew up in rural Minnesota, where she was valedictorian of her high-school class and one of the first in her community to attend an Ivy League school. At Harvard, Ali played trumpet (and met her future husband) in the Harvard University Band. When not teaching or writing, Ali enjoys reading, quilting, and hiking with her family.

Ana C. H. Silva, M.A.
Ana holds a Master of Arts with Honors in Mental Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh (where she completed her undergraduate studies) as well as an M.A. in English Literature from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She began her teaching career at Deerfield Academy and the Fieldston School before joining the faculty at the Spence School in Manhattan. Ana has been a faculty member of Spence’s English Department for almost 20 years. She teaches literature and writing, helps students craft their college essays, and mentors students in various literary and affinity groups.

Ana is also a meditation teacher. Having studied with a number of renowned practitioners, including David Nichtern, Cyndi Lee, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ana became certified in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at Kabat-Zinn’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts. Ana leads mindful living meditation workshops for both children and adults. She believes mindfulness encourages a generative, grounded openness and enhanced performance in all areas of life, including academics.

A poet and a visual artist, Ana has published poetry chapbooks and created interactive community poetry installations. She received the inaugural Rachel Wetzsteon Memorial Poetry Prize at the 92nd St. Y Unterberg Poetry Center. Her own students’ poems perpetually inspire her and have found recognition and publication.

Ana was born in San Francisco. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy, where as a senior she earned the Tencher Prize for Superior Effort and Interest in English. When not teaching or writing, Ana enjoys yoga, gardening, running, and spending time with her family. She also loves traveling, especially to Taiwan and Portugal, her parents’ countries of origin.

Jordan Adair, M.A.
Jordan graduated from the College of William and Mary, where he double-majored in English and Anthropology and played Division 1A lacrosse. He then earned an M.A. in American literature from Northeastern University and an M.A. from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English.

A passionate educator, Jordan has taught, coached, and house-counseled at Walnut Hill School for the Arts (Natick, MA), St. John’s Prep (Danvers, MA), Phillips Academy (Andover, MA), and Durham Academy (Durham, NC). In addition, he has extensive international teaching experience, including in San Ramon, Nicaragua; Shanghai, China; and Cambridge, England, where he was a Dean of Students and Director of Oxbridge Academics for eight summers.  

Over three decades at Durham Academy, a pre-K-12 independent day school, Jordan has served as Chair of the English Department, coached boys varsity basketball, advised the student newspaper, and helped establish the Assist Team, which supports struggling students. Jordan has taught English, Academic Writing, AP Art History, and a wide variety of electives including literary and artistic responses to war, creative nonfiction, Southern literature, film studies, and 20th Century poetry. Jordan has received the Upper School Outstanding Teacher Award and the F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award, which honors one teacher each year for outstanding contributions to the life of the school and to teaching.

Jordan prides himself on teaching to the whole student, helping students discover a passion for learning, and guiding them along the rigorous and rewarding path to becoming exceptional writers and critical thinkers. Along the way, he encourages self-reflection and self-awareness, deep engagement with literature and art, and a capacity in students to understand what it means to be human and to discover their unique place within the human community.

A lifelong athlete, Jordan enjoys recreational cycling and talking long walks with his wife and their six collies. He continues to feed his love of learning through reading and writing. 

Emily Elia, Ph.D.
Emily graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from The University of Alabama, where she double-majored in Political Science and Spanish. At Alabama, Emily was a member of the Blount Scholars Program, a selective living-learning community and interdisciplinary curriculum that culminates in a minor in Liberal Arts. She was also a student-athlete for all four years on Alabama’s equestrian team. Emily is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Rice University in Houston. She earned her M.A. in Political Science from Rice in 2020. Emily’s research explores corruption and electoral accountability in Latin America. She studies when and why voters decide to reelect corrupt politicians and how those politicians maintain voter support even after their corrupt behavior is known.

Emily is a committed educator who emphasizes the development of critical thinking skills and academic confidence in her students. She strives to help all her students replace self-doubt with trust in their own inner voices and to equip them with skills and strategies for success. She prioritizes adaptability in her teaching, tailoring her approach based on each student’s academic and emotional needs. At Rice, she has taught undergraduates and received training in pedagogy, teaching, and learning through Rice’s Center for Teaching Excellence. In college, Emily worked as an educator in various public school settings in both Alabama and Massachusetts, teaching children from kindergarten through high school. Currently, Emily also serves as a Rice University Graduate Student Ambassador, connecting with prospective graduate students around the world and mentoring prospects on the graduate school application process.

Emily grew up in Massachusetts, where she rode horses competitively and attended North Attleborough High School. Outside of teaching and research, Emily enjoys riding, hiking, traveling, exploring new coffee shops, and spending time with friends and family.

Ben Dwyer, M. Eng.
Ben earned his B.S. degree in Computer Science & Neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he played varsity football and varsity lacrosse. He was named a 1st Team CoSIDA Academic All-American during his senior football season, and he was also a three-time NEWMAC champion. Ben remained at MIT for graduate school, earning his Master of Engineering degree. His research focused on the intersections of neuroscience and machine learning.

Teaching and mentoring has been a deep-rooted passion of Ben’s since he was an undergraduate working in MIT’s Global Teaching Lab and offering instruction in physics and math at Convitto Nazionale Paolo Diacono, a boarding school in the Udine province of Italy. As a graduate student, he served as a Teaching Assistant to MIT undergrads as well as an academic tutor and mentor to local teens through the Boston Chapter of the Harlem Lacrosse program. Ben loves helping students bridge the gap between classroom learning and “real-life” experiences, collaborating with them on building the skills and strategies they need to drive the outcomes they seek in every aspect of their lives, and supporting their exploration and growth.

Ben grew up in the Syracuse suburbs, where he was valedictorian of his high school, captain and quarterback of the football team, captain of the lacrosse team, and a starting defenseman for the ice hockey team. When not teaching, developing sophisticated models and algorithms, or playing team sports, Ben likes to travel, scuba dive, and ski.

Erin Wood, Ph.D.
Erin graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in History and Feminist Studies. She received highest honors for her senior thesis, was a four-year Honor Scholar-Athlete as a member of the varsity women’s rowing team, and worked as a tutor for elementary and middle school students. After graduation, Erin joined the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project (now the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute) at Stanford, where she conducted historical research and documentary editing, researched and copyedited books, and mentored high school and college students.

Erin then attended graduate school at Yale University, where she earned an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History and African American Studies. Erin received several fellowships at Yale, including a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation, “Freedom is Indivisible: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Cold War Politics, and International Liberation Movements,” won several awards, including the Stephen Vella Prize for a Ph.D. dissertation that combines extraordinary scholarship with a commitment to social justice, and serves as the foundation for her in-progress book manuscript. While at Yale, Erin also worked as a Graduate Teaching Fellow. Erin then went on to teach at Connecticut College and Texas A&M University, where she was an Assistant Professor.

Erin loves teaching, tutoring, and mentoring young people, and she brings a deep desire to aide and guide students in their full humanity. She helps students learn to think critically and ask questions about what they are learning. She develops students’ learning skills, writing abilities, and awareness of their own capabilities. She is passionate about working with students towards lightbulb moments in their learning and watching the subsequent transformations in students’ confidence in academics and beyond.

Erin grew up in the mountains of Colorado, where she was the valedictorian of her high school, editor of her high school yearbook, and a three-sport varsity athlete in gymnastics, swimming, and track. In her free time, she loves spending time with her dog, cats, family, and friends. She also enjoys reading, exploring nature, helping animals in need, following an array of sports, and being physically active.

Jamie Baik, M.Ed, M.D. candidate
Jamie graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College, where she earned a B.A. in Studio & Fine Art with a focus on abstract oil painting and documentary photography. After graduation, Jamie worked as a Clinical Education Specialist at McLean Hospital’s Adolescent Residential Treatment program, which serves young people struggling with mood and substance use disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and personality disorders, along with behaviors such as school avoidance, self-injury, and suicidality. At McLean, Jamie taught daily classes in mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectic behavioral therapy, emotional education, and coping skills. She also served as a residence counselor, building rapport with patients, monitoring their safety and stability, and encouraging them to develop social skills, self-regulation, and self-efficacy.

Jamie then attended Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her studies focused on  fostering student success through addressing mental health and on teaching social-emotional learning in school, executive functioning, risk and resilience, and psychological assessment. During this period, Jamie also worked at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Cross-Cultural Student Emotional Wellness.

After deciding to pursue a career as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, Jamie applied to Harvard Medical School, where she is now in her third year. She is on Harvard’s Trauma-Informed Care Advisory Board and served as an Admissions Committee interviewer.

Jamie believes in the transformative power of relationships to help students grow and fulfill their potential. She aims to create a space for conversations where students feels safe and heard, allowing them to take risks and develop self-compassion, even in the face of setbacks and challenges. Jamie also focuses on empowering students to develop agency, self-direction, and pride in their interests, abilities, and multifaceted identities.

Jamie grew up in New Jersey and now lives in Boston, which has become a second home. In her free time, she enjoys studying Ashtanga yoga, playing board games with friends, exploring the newest coffee shops, attending art exhibits, and cycling along community bike paths.

Alice Liu, M.D. candidate
Alice graduated from Swarthmore College, where she earned a B.A. in Biology and Economics and played varsity volleyball. She also served as the Co-President of Global Neighbors, through which she provided music and art therapy to students with disabilities. After graduation, Alice spent a year as a U.S. Fulbright Fellow conducting research on a culturally-based public health intervention in rural China.

Alice then began medical school at the University of Michigan, where she recently completed her third year. Alice is deeply involved in mental health advocacy and creating safe spaces for honest conversations, especially within marginalized populations. Following graduation from medical school, she plans on pursuing a psychiatry residency.

Alice has been teaching and tutoring since college, where she served as a teaching assistant in the Swarthmore Biology Department and also worked with students individually. She believes in empowering students with the self-awareness, tools, and strategies to help them become the drivers of their own learning journey. She works closely with students to formulate learning objectives, create a supportive learning environment, identify and address learning gaps, and optimize academic performance through attention to such things as executive functioning, study skills, metacognitive awareness, self-advocacy, and critical thinking. She particularly enjoys working with students to help them understand the powerful role self-insight plays in academic success.

Alice grew up in the Bay Area before moving to the east coast for college. In her free time, she enjoys volleyball, slam poetry, attending art exhibitions, playing board games, and reading fiction. 

August Young, Ph.D.
August Young graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University, where she double-majored in Mechanical Engineering and Physics and discovered a passion for communicating mathematical and scientific concepts. She began teaching in various capacities, including as a teaching associate in an elementary school where she presented lessons on robotics.

August then began her graduate studies at Duke, where she earned an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Her doctoral research, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, focuses on understanding contaminant movement through the subsurface and its effects on surface water sources. August was honored with first place at an international conference for her research in porous media flows and has authored multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts.

During her time at Duke, August served as a student-athlete tutor and academic mentor through Duke Athletics, where she assisted undergraduates in developing essential academic performance skills such as time management, goal setting, problem solving, and effective communication. August was also a teaching assistant and guest lecturer for a range of graduate and undergraduate STEM courses. She led recitation sections, developed exam rubrics, served as a grader, and provided individual support to students. August also collaborated with colleagues to develop and administer a digital engineering laboratory, facilitating students' access to advanced data collection techniques.

Alongside her graduate studies and teaching, August studied mindfulness and meditation through Duke’s Koru Mindfulness Program. She committed to daily meditation and yoga sessions and quickly recognized their value in fostering balance, well-being, growth, and success. August has remained engaged in mindfulness practices and in exploring and teaching the myriad applications of mindfulness in optimizing academic performance.

Originally from Connecticut, August attended Woodstock Academy and was the first member of her family to attend college. In her free time, she loves to cycle, garden, cook, and travel to new places.

Christopher James Diak, M.Div.
Christopher graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College with a B.A. in Religion and Neuroscience. He was awarded Highest Honors in Religion and the Michael Moss '16 Prize in Buddhist Studies for his thesis on the works of Noam Chomsky and Bhartṛhari, a fifth-century Sanskrit grammarian. While at Middlebury, Christopher was a varsity rower, a visiting research fellow at Harvard Medical School, and a student member of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness.  

He holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, where he focused on the cognitive study of religion. There, he studied philosophy of language and conducted research on the cognitive neuroscience of compositional thought. His interests in deep learning and the liberal arts drove him to become one of the first three model teachers at OpenAI, where he worked with the technical and design staff to predict and shape the behaviors of OpenAI’s large language models. He is currently researching compositionality and the cognitive architecture of large language models at Dartmouth College.

Christopher discovered his love of teaching a decade ago as a student teacher at The Compass School in Westminster, Vermont, where he taught art and filmmaking to middle and high school students and learned to mentor young people with a range of learning styles. Informed by this experience, he studied the theory and practice of liberal arts education at Middlebury College, served as a first-generation peer tutor, and delivered lessons in neuroscience at Middlebury Union High School and Mt. Abraham Union High School. In his work and teaching, he remains guided by The Compass School's philosophy of self-directed and democratic learning, applying it most recently to his work as a teaching fellow at Harvard College.

While in Boston, Christopher also worked at Harvard Business School in The Forum for Growth & Innovation, a think-tank dedicated to teaching management theory to HBS students and alumni, where he was managing editor of The Disruptive Voice. As a research associate at HBS, he has co-authored eight case studies on business ethics, leadership, and finance for the MBA program and served as a founding member of the teaching team for The Spiritual Lives of Leaders, an interfaculty course on the sources of meaning and purpose that drive the world's leaders.

Beyond work and teaching, Christopher loves to play guitar, swim in nearby lakes, and ride his bicycle, Zeus. He grew up on a sheep farm in Grafton, Vermont, and lives with his wife in New Hampshire.

Mark Lamendola, M.E.M. candidate
Mark graduated from Washington and Lee University with a B.A. in Chemistry and a minor in Environmental Studies. He was a four-year starter on the Men’s Basketball Team and captain for his final two seasons. He also served as a resident and community advisor and as a peer tutor.

After college, managed The Flat Ranch Nature Preserve for The Nature Conservancy, an experience that deepened his commitment to environmental stewardship and guided his eventual decision to pursue a Master of Environmental Management at Duke University. At Duke, Mark is concentrating on the intersection of ecosystems with economics and policy, and he hopes to further his studies in environmental law at Duke Law.

Before beginning his graduate studies, Mark worked at North Cross School in Roanoke, Virginia, as an academic coach and subject tutor for the CrossWalk program, a unique learning facility for students with language-based learning differences.  He enjoys tailoring his instruction to meet each student’s unique needs, assisting students in cultivating self-advocacy, and helping students master not only academic content, but also the executive functioning skills and metacognitive strategies that will benefit them in the classroom and throughout their lives.

Mark is a student of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. He has explored various mind-body practices, including, most recently, the Positivity and Relaxation Training (PART) at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mark remains an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins. In his free time, he enjoys watching and playing sports, hiking, and discovering new yoga studios. He loves to travel. His many adventures have shaped his belief that the world is a classroom and that life offers endless opportunities for growth and learning.