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Arete’s success is in part due to the individualized course of study developed for each student. We believe that students are unique and as such, there is no uniform approach to tutoring. We assess and analyze where each student is at and then fill in the blanks for a more efficient approach. However, part of the magic lies in Arete’s coaches.
We are not simply coaches, but mentors. We try to be examples for our students based on what we achieve and have achieved in our own lives. We believe that academic success is critical to creating a solid foundation for the future. At Arete, our careers are a blend of making a difference for our students as well as pursuing our own dreams. We try to show our students that anything they want to pursue is possible if they establish a strong work ethic and develop the confidence, and the courage, to reach for the moon.
The following list includes a partial list of our roster of coaches:
Nikki Geula graduated from Vassar College in 1994 with highest honors in Political Science. She grew up in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and attended the Yung Wing School for gifted children and then The Dalton School. At Vassar, she was awarded the Eloise Ellery Fellowship and the Samuel B. Tilden Award for her outstanding work in Political Philosophy. Her thesis, Arete in Machiavelli’s The Prince: The Prince as Ethical in Light of Plato’s Healthy City received the mark of distinction. She was awarded the prestigious Political Science Internship, a stipend given to the student with the highest GPA in Political Science, to teach fellow students political philosophy.
After graduating from Vassar, Nikki attended the Circle in the Square Professional Conservatory where she received a graduate certificate in acting. Prior to founding Arete, Nikki, a member of the Screen Actors Guild, worked as an actress, landing theatre, film and television roles. Nikki attended the Joffrey Ballet School for nine years and was a founding member of the Circle Players Improv Company. Nikki is a published political journalist and has appeared on CNN for her work featuring the homeless in New York. Nikki is also the author of Refrigerator Art, a book of homeless and abused children’s art. Her screenplay Split Second was co-written with the former chief weapons inspector of UNSCOM, Scott Ritter and focuses on the genocide of Liberia. Nikki’s life-long hobby of making jewelry became more than a passion, as she designed the jewelry for Ralph Lauren’s recent Fall and Spring Collections for Women. Her work is also featured at Net-A-Porter based in the UK and in Podium, the ‘Barney’s’ of Russia.
SUBJECTS: Consultations, College Essay Writing, Law School, Medical School & Business School Applications, SAT’s, ACT’s, SAT II’s, SSAT, ISEE’s, History, English and Career Counseling.
Ali graduated from Yale University magna cum laude with a degree in History, and received her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts. A Los Angeles native, she attended Colburn School of the Performing Arts for piano in conjunction with her studies at Polytechnic School. She has years of teaching and tutoring experience, ranging from voice and speech training to working with children with autism. Ali also created the SAT curriculum for Los Angeles City College’s extension program. In addition to LACC, she has taught classes at Prep for Prep in New York, and at California Institute of the Arts. She has also worked with students with learning disabilities on study and organizational skills.
SUBJECTS: SAT, SSAT/ISEE, Writing, College Essays, History, Spanish, Organizational and Study Skills
Fabienne
was born in New York and raised in Connecticut. She became a student of classical ballet, jazz dance, piano and theater at an early age and performed on a regular basis throughout high school. She spent her summers studying Spanish in Salamanca, Spain and French in the mountains of Switzerland, and then spent 2 months enlisted in the Israeli Army’s scouts program, Chetz V’keshet. In college she turned her attention to journalism and graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Communication Studies and Art History. During her junior year, Fabienne lived in Paris to study art and work at French Vogue, directly under the editor-in-chief. Since graduating college in 2000, Fabienne has worked for CBS News in New York City, where she produced various national news segments airing on the weekend edition of the Evening News with Dan Rather. She also participated in the 24-hr coverage of Election 2000, 9/11, and most recently, the War in Iraq. Coming from European and African parents, Fabienne has also had the opportunity to travel to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to visit her extended family. She is bi-lingual in French.In addition to tutoring for Arete, Fabienne is a freelance news producer based out of Los Angeles. In the fall, Fabienne will begin her MBA studies at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.
SUBJECTS: English, Writing, Art History, History, Math, Journalism, SAT I, SAT II, French, Spanish
Ben Beckley graduated from Princeton University in 2003 with a B.A. in English and Theater. His senior thesis, a study of the influence of Ulysses on the work of Tom Stoppard, received the Alan Downer Thesis Prize. Ben was one of only two students awarded the coveted Director's Prize, given to students who have made the greatest contribution to Princeton's theater community.
The son of a university professor and a speech pathologist, Ben grew up in Lexington, Virginia, a small, college town in the center of the Shenandoah Valley. Attending Rockbridge County High School, he won a Scholastic Writing Award, toured Russia with a Methodist choir, secured a perfect store on the Verbal section of his SATs, and graduated first in his class. He also received 5's on both Latin APs and as well as 5's on both the U.S. History AP, and English AP.
Ben is a two-time president of the Bats, the Obie Award-winning resident theater company for The Flea Theater. The New York Times praised his "hilarious" performance in Not a Creature Was Stirring, a world premiere by Christopher Durang. Other world premieres include The West Village Fragments (Obie Award), Force: Convergence (Pulitzer Prize nominee), and Los Angeles (directed by Adam Rapp and starring Katherine Waterston). His one-man show, The Curse of the Smart Kid, played to packed houses at HERE Arts Center last June.
During his first year in New York, Ben served as office assistant for The Wooster Group, the famous avant-garde theater collective that launched Spalding Gray and Willem Dafoe. Ben's own experimental theater company, Temporary Distortion, will tour Europe this March with its latest show, Welcome to Nowhere, which The Village Voice called "a daring performance about memory and identity".
"I performed well in high school, but it wasn't until college, when I learned to balance my varied interests with discipline, clarity, and focus, that I started working at my full potential. I want to help students to allay their own anxieties, doubts, and fears, and to lead happier and more successful lives."
SUBJECTS: SAT, Literature, Writing, Interview techniques, Pre-calc, SAT II Literature, AP English, AP History, AP Literature and AP Latin
Ginna Closs graduated from Stanford University in 2000 with a degree in Latin and Greek, and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Ancient Art and Archaeology from the University of Cambridge. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Menlo School, where she first began studying Latin. At Stanford, she received awards for outstanding undergraduate papers in Classics and Western Civilization, as well as grants for study abroad and archaeological field school on Cyprus. Ginna also spent a semester at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, an intensive program for Classics undergraduates with extensive training in classical languages and literature supplementing the Centro’s featured course, “The Ancient City.”
After college, Ginna spent a year in the Program Department of the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, where she coordinated events featuring high-level speakers (Former U.S. Presidents, current members of Congress, distinguished authors and Nobel laureates, various heads of state) for National Public Radio broadcast and live audiences of up to 1100. At Cambridge, her Master’s thesis research featured a synthesis of textual, epigraphic material evidence related to Rome’s “Great Fire” of 64 and its subsequent memorialization. She was awarded travel grants by the Faculty of Classics and Newnham College, Cambridge for thesis research and two seasons as graduate assistant of Cambridge excavations on the Palatine Hill in Rome, one of the earliest-inhabited sites in Rome and later home to twenty generations of emperors. Her findings and drawings were included in the site report recently published by the project’s director, Henry Hurst, in the Papers of the British School at Rome, a leading journal of Classical studies and Roman archaeology.
In 2003, Ginna began teaching at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, CA and in 2005 moved to Manhattan to join the faculty of Trinity Upper School, widely regarded as having one of the best high school Classics programs in the country. At Trinity, she has full teaching responsibility for beginning through Advanced Placement Latin and Greek courses in the Department of Classics. Ginna spent the summer of 2005 in Rome and Ravenna, studying monuments and working on the excavations of the imperial harbor at Classe, as part of a program offered by the American Academy in Rome. In 2006, she was granted full funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities for participation in a selective two-week seminar focused on using digital media and computer models as teaching tools for ancient studies.
SUBJECTS: Latin, Ancient Greek, Spanish, Essay Writing, Latin AP, SAT II
Vani Krishnamurthy graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. She received a B.A. in PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) with high distinction for her thesis: "Good Government: A Convenient Answer to the Politics of Hindutva," which takes a close look at the rise to power of the BJP, a Hindu Nationalist party in India.
In 2003, Vani decided to explore a long-standing passion in the arts, stemming from 20 years of classes and performances in Indian classical dance and art history courses at Penn. She left BCG to first work for the curatorial and development departments at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Then, she embarked on a Fulbright Scholarship to India, where she studied representations of dance in Indian temples, while also furthering her technical training in Indian classical dance from world-renowned gurus. She wrote and compiled a group of essays and photos, which she is currently publishing into a coffee-table book.
Upon returning from India, Vani began lecturing, performing, and running workshops for art societies and institutions based on her research in India. Her clients include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Asian Art Society of New England, among many others. She particularly enjoys sharing her knowledge and expertise with enthusiastic learners.
In 2005, Vani attended Harvard Business School, where she focused her efforts on arts management. For example, she was chosen as a Lincoln Center Summer Fellow, and worked on various projects for the prestigious institution during the summer between her two years at school. She also worked with professors to construct a marketing plan aimed at helping ethnic dance troupes appeal to the mainstream public.
After graduating from Harvard in 2007, Vani re-entered the world of consulting at Bain and Company, a top-tier consulting firm. She also works as an independent consultant for the arts -- her clients vary in size from small institutions and groups that need her help, to established non-profits like Lincoln Center.
"Success comes from creativity. There are always obstacles to achieving any goal -- academic, professional, and personal. However, unlocking the creativity that exists uniquely within each individual is often the answer to moving past roadblocks. I aim to put students at ease, let them have confidence in their own potential, so that they can be creative in releasing that potential in order to achieve the infinite."
SUBJECTS: English, Writing, SAT, ACT, Undergraduate Case/Job interviews, Applications/Interviews for College, MBA Programs and Fellowships.
Eric Kubo graduated from Yale University where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics. He then received his Masters in Fine Arts from Tisch, New York University. As an undergraduate, he conducted independent field research in O'ahu on both the linguistic and political status of the Hawaiian language. He also studied under noted Spanish linguist and translator Barbara Harshav and completed a translation and adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s Yerma for one of his senior theses.
Eric served as the captain of the robotics team, competed and won at State level with MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement), and traveled extensively to present on the research he and fellow students were conducting to measure the level of freshwater pollution and PCBs in the San Jose Watershed. He is a published writer, playwright and songwriter.
SUBJECTS: SAT, Spanish, Math (through Calculus), Chemistry, English, and History.
Christopher Miller will finish his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Columbia University in May 2008. He his thesis will include new work on black holes and string theory. He attended Columbia University as an undergraduate as well, where he received degrees in Mathematics and Physics in May 2001.
Chris has many passions, including music, travel, and sports. He has studied classical piano from the age of 4, and picked up viola and guitar along the way. Currently, he plays piano in a jazz ensemble. While pursuing his studies, Chris has found time to venture to Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. When he is in New York, however, he spends many weekends playing rugby and tutoring, which he has done for the last ten years.
“Finding original ways to solve difficult problems is what keeps my work in physics interesting. I try to apply this logic to tutoring by making the experience fun for students, while pushing them to realize their creative and analytical potential.”
SUBJECTS: Physics, Math, Chemistry, Biology (any level, and SAT II)
Nicolette Nicola graduated with honors from Westminster College in Pennsylvania. She studied the romantic poets Byron, Keats and Shelley in England, Germany and Italy. After college she moved to New York City, where she wrote and directed numerous plays for AboutFace Theatre Company. In 1997 she received her MFA from Bennington College where she studied poetry with the current Poet Laureate, Donald Hall.
Nicolette has published poetry and literary reviews in numerous literary magazines and small journals, such as Michigan Quarterly Review and Painted Bride Quarterly. Her web design company, XYLO Web Design LLC, designed many sites for small businesses in Red Bank, New Jersey. She currently serves as Poetry Editor for Post Road (Cambridge, MA).
SUBJECTS: English, History, French, Creative Writing, ACT, SAT I and SAT II (Literature).
A native New Yorker, Felice earned her B.A. in Semiotics at Brown University. From elementary school through college, Felice managed to juggle her studies with a professional acting career, appearing in films, television programs and plays. At the same time, she studied at the prestigious School of American Ballet, dancing with the New York City Ballet, and the visiting Bolshoi and Stuttgart companies as well.
After years in front of the camera and on stage, Felice moved behind the scenes into film and television production and freelance writing. Throughout her career, she managed to travel and live around the world, gaining fluency in Spanish. Her teaching career began with volunteer tutoring at the East Harlem Tutorial Program and the Red Cross Homeless Shelter, assisting children with reading and homework. These experiences inspired Felice to apply for the New York Teaching Fellows program. As a Fellow, Felice gained hands-on classroom experience working with children with various disabilities, including students with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, speech impairments and emotional disorders. Her students increased their reading and/or math scores, and some were even mainstreamed out of special education classrooms. Because of her success, she was asked to teach the AIS and Newton after-school programs, assisting children in the general community with test preparation. She was also recruited as the summer internship coordinator at the well-known KIPP Academy charter school in the Bronx, providing high school students with career skills building opportunities such as resume writing and interview preparedness.
Felice is currently an ABA therapist in New York City, working one on one with children with autism to build language, social and motor skills. She continues her passion for the arts by serving as an acting coach to professional actors. She is passionate about tutoring and is an ERB specialist. She considers her greatest accomplishment to be that of bringing her son, William, into the world in October, 2005.
“Each child learns differently. I believe in empowering children to overcome their individual challenges in order to achieve their unique potential.”
SUBJECTS: ERB, OLSAT, Organizational Skills, Study Skills, Spanish, English and Math.
Joshua earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama. He received his BA from Brown University, where he graduated with Honors in English and Physics. He was also awarded the Jefferson Scholarship Award from UVA.
Scher is a multi-award-winning, produced and published playwright and screenwriter. Scher’s play “Marvel,” was part of the Huntington’s (MA) Breaking Ground Series Spring ‘05, was read at the Williamstown Theater Festival summer ‘05, and was produced by Portland Stage (ME) in the spring of ’06, where it won the Clauder Competition. Scher’s musical “Triangle,” was developed/performed at the Williamstown Theater Festival summer ‘05 and in ’06 at the prestigious O’Neill Theater Festival, directed by Robert Longbottom (Scarlet Pimpernel on Broadway). His newest work, The Footage, was work-shopped at Jim Simpson’s Flea Theater (NYC) . Scher has worked with the Labyrinth Theater Company, MCC, Rattlestick, and the Drama League.
On the film front, Scher is currently under contract writing the screenplay of Oren’s Sonata for Papillon Pictures, which his own company, Paradigm Shift Productions will produce. Also in film, he wrote the treatment for the Joe Frazier biopic that Penny Marshall is slated to direct. In the TV world, Scher’s original, one hour drama, JIGSAW, is currently being developed by Danny Glover's production company, Louverture Films,. Paradigm Shift is also developing Scher’s character-driven multiplatform half hour comedy, “SinTalk;” a mockumentary half-hour comedy Death Drill; a provocative one hour workplace drama, EdenTree; and a one hour apocalyptic thriller, Dystopia.
Joshua has worked on screenplay development for Trilogy Entertainment and Miramax. He was a professor at Stern College in NYC where he ran the Drama Department. He has also conducted writing workshops at both Yale and Brown University.
SUBJECTS: Math (through Calculus), Chemistry, Physics, Biology, English, History, Spanish, College Essay Writing, Creative Writing, SSAT, ISEE, SAT, SAT II, ACT, GMAT, MCAT
Rachel Siegel is a graduate of Harvard University magna cum laude, where she studied Fine Arts and German literature. She attended high school at Phillips Academy Andover, where she won the Classics prize, studied organ, and performed in The Marriage of Figaro. During college, she spent a semester in Vienna, studying at the University of Vienna and researching her thesis on Egon Schiele. She received the Bernhard Blume prize for the best thesis in the German department. After college, Rachel was admitted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's three-year acting program, which she completed with honors, as one of only two students in her year. She has appeared in television, film, and theatre roles, including several episodes of Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central, a BBC drama, and the Merchant Ivory film Heights. Notable theatre performances include Polly Garter and Rosie Probert in Under Milkwood at Williamstown Theatre Festival, for which she was named a "Best Performance of 2003", and Enchanted April at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., for which she was named a "Best Actress of 2006" in the Berkshire Eagle. She is a longtime teacher, and has taught acting at The School of Visual Arts. Her short play Callback was performed at Mixed Company theatre in 2003. She is an enthusiastic and long-time student of Iyengar yoga, and enjoys making art, including medieval manuscript illuminations.
"What I enjoy most about teaching is the relationship that's created-- the challenge of communicating ideas in an individually tailored way. I think students always know more than they think they know, so I aim to create confidence and allow for intellectual instincts to emerge. I think I would have strongly benefited from the organizational help of a coach when I was a high school student-- it's my experience that when good habits are formed early, they pay many dividends down the line!"
SUBJECTS: SSAT, ISEE, SAT I and II (Writing), French (up to and including AP), Math (up to Calculus, Algebra I and II are my strong points, Trig not so much), Latin, German, English, History, Essay writing, Drama.
Danielle Silber graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2005 with honors in International Studies and African & Afro American Studies. She grew up outside of Washington D.C. and attended the Montgomery Blair Magnet School, known for its Communication Arts Program through which she produced a local television show. Her experience with media production spurred her to use national media to highlight social justice issues ranging from xenophobia to gay rights, including a 20/20 feature story with Barbara Walters.
At Washington University, Danielle’s interests shifted to focus on international affairs. She started an annual International Human Rights Film festival, offering the St. Louis community free access to international films and expert speakers on international affairs. She volunteered with several different HIV/AIDS non-profits in Namibia, Washington D.C. and St. Louis culminating with a research project in Kenya focusing on grassroots women’s movements combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Her thesis, The History of Politically-Instigated Ethnic Conflict in Kenya, later paved the way for her to start one of the largest community-based organizations raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. As a senior, Danielle was hired by Washington University to develop an International Leadership Program for freshman students.
After she graduated, Danielle taught a freshman seminar in International Affairs and coordinated all international forums, events, and conferences at Washington University. Danielle moved to NYC in order to work more closely with the UN and cultivate international educational programming for high school and college students.
“When I think about Mark Twain’s quote, ‘I never let schooling interfere with my education’ I always imagine Huck Finn speaking the words. I have seen firsthand how schooling can be incredibly intimidating when youth’s intelligence is quantified by test scores and report cards instead of qualified by curiosity, critical thinking and creativity. My goal is to equip students with the skills to excel on tests and achieve high grades while simultaneously empowering them to enjoy learning and explore bodies of knowledge that impassion them.”
SUBJECTS: History, English/Literature, Math (through Geometry), French, Spanish, SSAT, ISEE, ACT, SAT, Public Speaking, Study Skills and Organization.
Laura Gale Simpson graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Honors Program at The Ohio State University, where she earned degrees in Sociology and Theatre. Laura put herself through college, earning countless merit scholarships to fund her studies, including the Drake Leadership Award, the Scarlet Mask Award for Excellence in Performance, awards from the Department of Sociology and the College of Arts & Sciences, and numerous scholarships funding research, travel and production work.
Today, Laura works in New York and across the world as an actor, producer and educator. Laura is the Executive Artistic Director of New York Theatre Experiment (NYTE), an arts organization that develops and produces new work for the theatre. Laura also oversees NYTE's innovative educational outreach program, Lift Every Voice, which offers underprivileged teens the opportunity to collaborate with professional theatre artists to write, direct and perform an evening of short original plays-- all in 24 hours!
Laura has worked extensively with both private and public school students, as a tutor and teaching artist. Laura specializes in the Humanities and Social Sciences, but has tutored a wide variety of subjects and has worked with students ranging from Kindergarten to college level. She also tutors the SAT and provides comprehensive coaching for students tackling the college admissions process.
SUBJECTS: ERBs, OLSAT, SSAT, ISEE, SAT
Hilary Teeman grew up in Los Angeles, California. As a high school student at Harvard-Westlake School, she was active in the drama department and was an editor on the school's award-winning newspaper, The Chronicle. As a senior, she won the California Young Playwright's Contest, and had her one-act play, After Angie, produced at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, CA.
Hilary attended Princeton University, where she majored in English Literature. For her senior thesis, she researched the role of subversion in the children's literature of Roald Dahl. She graduated magna cum laude, and was elected into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. At Princeton, she served as a peer advisor in her residential college and was one of the founding members of the Organization of Women Leaders. She was also the scholarship chair of her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and a member of the Cap & Gown Club.
She has held several internships, including HBO Films, USA Today and SHAPE magazine. For two summers, she worked at Exploration Summer Programs at Wellesley College, where she served as an instructor, a residential adviser, and a residential director for the academic enrichment program for grades 8-9.
Hilary currently works as an associate editor at St. Martin's Press, a book publisher in Manhattan. Prior to joining SMP, she worked as a literary agent at Trident Media Group. Hilary works on a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books projects, including several recent New York Times bestsellers.
Her experience working with Arete has been wonderful. She enjoys coaching students to succeed and finds incredible gratification in helping her students learn to set goals and surpass them.
SUBJECTS: Literature, History (all levels), SATs (verbal, writing), Expository Writing, Study Skills.
Carling Ursem graduated valedictorian from Aliso Niguel High School in 2002, where she had been active in music through her participation in the dance team and orchestra, and was also the president of DECA, an association of marketing students. In 2006 she received a Bachelor of Science with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley in Molecular Toxicology. While at UC Berkeley Carling held leadership roles in many student groups, and also participated in volunteer activities through organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Center of the East Bay, the YWCA’s Youth Mentor Program, and Children’s Hospital Oakland. In addition she performed research in the fields of neurology and genetic toxicology.
After graduation, Carling moved to Washington, DC to work at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, where she performed research in the field of computational toxicology. During this time she helped to develop a methodology for computational analysis of the adverse effects of drugs, and authored two papers on the subject.
After leaving the FDA, Carling moved to New York, where she is currently a medical student at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. During her spare time she serves on the student council, as well as enjoys rock climbing and hiking at nearby parks.
SUBJECTS: Biology, Physics, SATI, ACT, SATII Biology, SATII Physics
Nora Yoo graduated magna cum laude and with honors in Architectural Studies in 2006 from Brown University, where she also completed a second concentration in Hispanic Literature and Culture. She studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain during the fall of her junior year, and while at Brown enjoyed working as a tour guide, peer advisor, and teaching assistant for survey courses in the History of Art and Architecture department. She was elected to Sigma Delta Pi, the National Spanish Honor Society, in her junior year, and to Phi Beta Kappa in her senior year. Upon graduating, Nora was awarded the Harvey A. Baker Fellowship for high scholastic standing and achievement in leadership.
Currently, Nora is a second year student in the Master of Architecture program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
SUBJECTS: English, Spanish, SAT, Study Skills and Organization
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