MEET OUR TEAM
Who are starfire teachers?
Starfire teachers are trained mathematicians, scientists, engineers, programmers, design thinkers, and artists.
Starfire teachers are an elite group of carefully selected professionals who have valuable skills and insights to share with your child.
Starfire teachers are carefully vetted and go through a detailed selection process.
Each teacher completes Starfire teacher training to help spark a lifelong love of problem solving and STEAM learning in safe, fun classrooms. Our teachers are trained to be clear and powerful STEAM learning communicators
Meet our teaching team!
Adrian P.
M.F.A, Digital Arts and New Media, University of California, Santa Cruz
B.A., Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts & Computer Science, University of California, San Diego
Adrian is an interactive media designer, developer, and educator. Working primarily through the creation of compelling stories through emergent gameplay and systems oriented design, he is fascinated by the intersection of games and education. While not working at Starfire, he is a freelance designer and developer working with a number of clients, from startups to art galleries. He obtained his Master's of Fine Arts in Digital Arts and New Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with an emphasis in Playable Media. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of California, San Diego with a major in Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts and a minor in Computer Science.
ANGELLE P.
Angelle graduated with a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She worked in the field of geotechnical engineering for four years when she decided to stay home with her children. Over the last 18 years she has homeschooled her six children, tutored and taught science, math and engineering classes in homeschool cooperatives. Angelle is enthusiastic about sharing her passion for math and engineering. In her free time she enjoys playing board games and visiting the beach with her family.
Augustine N.
Augustine graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He has a passion for robotics. Augustine is now pursuing a Masters of Mechanical Engineering. He has seven years of competition experience, including competing at the VEX Robotics World Championships four times. Before joining Starfire, Augustine had worked with a variety of classroom settings including English classes in Taiwan, summer robotics camps in public school, and Sunday school at his church. Outside of engineering and teaching, Augustine enjoys good food with good company, clever games, and trying out things with funny names.
Dean V.
Dean graduated with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Florida. He worked for a motor company before setting his sights on teaching. Dean is a life long learner and enjoys teaching and working with students of all ages and abilities. He believes that each student can excel in STEAM education. In his free time he enjoys kayaking and other outdoor sports.
JAYA A.
Jaya is enthusiastic and professional Computer Science educator and programmer. She enjoys teaching children as well as leading successful and productive professional teams. She completed a master’s degree in computer science and has extensive work experience in teaching various Information Technology disciplines to people of all ages as well working as a Database Administrator. She prides herself on helping her students develop innovative and creative solutions to problems. She is excited to share her love of STEAM education with Starfire students. Jaya has an adventurous and active lifestyle. When not teaching she loves travel and keeps active by swimming and by doing Yoga and Zumba. Her favorite activity is spending time with her adorable kids!
Joe C.
Joe graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Philosophy, and is an acquisition editor for an academic publisher of graduate-level e-books. Joe works with authors and editors to produce educational resources for researchers at the cutting edge of neuroscience, cell biology, physiology, and experimental biomedicine. Previously, Joe worked at the American Association for Cancer Research, promoting and supporting preclinical and translational cancer research programs for its 30K plus members worldwide. Joe is passionate about training the next generation of scientists and implementing innovation in education. Joe was on the Varsity Fencing team at Princeton and volunteers for SoccerFours, an adult pick-up soccer league in San Francisco.
Mrudani C.
Mrudani graduated from Osmania University where she earned her B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering. She's also currently enrolled in a Master’s program in Computer Engineering at San Jose State University; wherein, she's currently working on a Master’s thesis exploring applications of voice recognition systems. While pursuing her master’s program, Mrudani deepened her involvement in STEAM education by tutoring students from K-12. The experience she gained in the process was wonderful. Mrudani loves spending time with children as they learn, question, grow and discover the amazing world around them. She became a Starfire teacher because she believes in their philosophy to connect STEAM with real-life problems. Through Starfire’s after school program, she wants to inspire children and empower them to reach their potential. Outside of work, Mrudani loves to run in the woods, portrait sketch and cook a variety of vegetarian cuisines.
Nathanael S.
Nathanael graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Music and a minor in Computer Science. Since graduating, he has done work in front-end web development using popular frameworks such as React and Node JS. Nathanael has multiple STEAM based passions, including music production, creating web applications, and making video games. For recreation, Nathanael enjoys basketball, playing games with friends, and spending time with family.
Pallavi D.
Pallavi graduated in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Pune (First rank holder in her class). During her time at college, she tutored undergrad students in math and telecommunications. It was rewarding for her to see students develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills through the application of STEAM to real-life scenarios.
Pallavi is a mother of 1st grader and an active volunteer at Cupertino Union School District. She loves spending time with students and encourages them to develop a growth mindset during their foundational years of life. She has a passion for STEAM education and hopes to spark her students love of STEAM through teaching with Starfire.
In her free time, she enjoys Pilates, Yoga, Zumba, and dance.
Randel C.
Randel received his BS in Computer Engineering from the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He worked as a software engineer for over twenty years at Silicon Valley companies such as Apple. Because teaching has always been in his blood, Randel has returned to his first career as a tutor, which he has been devoted to since high school. Randel enjoys playing guitar, and he can be seen from time to time performing in local cover bands.
Shweta R.
Shweta is an Electronics and Communication Engineer with a Masters in Software Systems from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, India. She believes in modeling continuous learning for her students; she recently earned a nanodegree in Robotics Software Engineering from Udacity.
Shweta’s passion for technology led her to a 10 year career in the Software Industry.
She is also passionate about sharing her love of S.T.E.A.M. through novel pedagogies and has been teaching and working with kids from elementary to high school for the past four years. She is active as a coach for teams in prestigious robotics competitions and always ready to take the opportunity to help her students excel. She feels that every kid should get an opportunity to imagine, create, and innovate. She looks forward to igniting her students love of S.T.E.A.M. at Starfire.
Supriya I.
Supriya is content strategist by profession with a passion for novel pedagogies. She has over a decade of experience in marketing and content strategy across an eclectic mix of industries. Her transition to the social sector from the corporate sector is what brought her to Katha, an organisation in India working at a grassroots level in education. With training in Indian classical music (and western music), she practised pedagogies based on storytelling and music to bring children into reading. Currently, she is freelancing as a content strategist for various companies and is trying to understand the education landscape in the USA to develop a deeper understanding of unique techniques that make STEAM education an experience that is modelled around creativity and fun.
TEJAL C.
Tejal is a Software Engineer and an Educator. She holds a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University. Tejal is passionate about developing software applications that are easy-to-use and well-architected. Her experience as a Software Developer has taught her to write code that follows best design practices and is optimized. She brings the same level of passion and integrity to STEAM education. She loves to help kids explore their problem solving abilities by encouraging creativity, logical thinking and teamwork.
Ying H.
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering
M.S. Electrical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology
Ying received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering, where she did her research on robust adaptive control techniques and applications. Ying was also an instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, teaching undergraduates Industrial Control techniques. Ying is the mother of two boys in 6th and 9th grade in the Cupertino School District, where she has been an active volunteer and shares her passion for STEAM by working with K-8 students. As a Student & Lecturer at the Beijing Institute of Technology, she was awarded "best student adviser" for her outstanding management, mentorship and leadership.
