She has presented assemblies to over 200,000 students at over 300 elementary schools across the United States, using her experiences as an author and illustrator to delight, educate and inspire young readers and writers. Jennifer has extensive background in forward-thinking educational ventures. She served as Director of Marketing and Operations at A.S.K. Learning and was Campus Director of InsideTrack Learning, a student recruitment and retention services organization. Jennifer is a graduate of Stanford University, from which she holds a Master’s in Education and a Bachelor’s in Sociology.

Hans and Jen are the creators of the GATE class “My Child The Author” and have taught eBook making workshops to teachers and librarians. He has also been an instructor at the Stanford Alumni Association’s “Alumni Creative Camp.” Hans earned an M.B.A from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. While attending Wharton, he served as the president of Wharton Toastmasters. Hans holds a B.A. from Stanford University, where he majored in economics and earned a secondary major in public policy. In addition to his work as an author, Hans spent 10 years in financial services, as a Vice President at an investment bank and a Senior Research Analyst at a San Francisco hedge fund.

Zee grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania (home to boxer Larry Holmes… and Crayola Crayons). She went on to study Drama at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and worked as an actress in film, tv, and theatre. Alongside these creative pursuits, she worked privately with families coaching their children in theatre to build stronger self-esteem. When the number of families she worked with grew larger than she was able to cover, she started finding other people to work for them. She then officially started her own company recruiting other performers to work with children as babysitters, tutors, and full charge nannies. Zee’s love of working with children also led to taking on a Founder and Director role in Esteem Preschool in Los Angeles. In her free time, Zee chases after her 4th grader on the Soccer field as a Rec Coach, and takes long walks or runs with her husband or dog.

In this role, Jonny blends his classroom experience as a 3rd grade teacher at San Ramon Valley’s Quail Run Elementary School with his passion for writing and playing music. In his early 20’s, he established his own record label and traveled the country performing music. Jonny currently performs regularly with two Bay Area musical groups. His musical teaching experiences include private instruction in guitar, song writing, and “full band” classes with Garage Band Academy. Jonny also developed a course called “Musicianship,” which he taught in the public school sector at West Sacramento Early College Prep charter school in West Sacramento, California. In addition, he has created and recorded entertaining educational songs with “KLABLAB.” Jonny has collaborated with Dr. Nordyke to create music-based writing curriculum for AIW camp.

Prior to her work as an AIW tutor, Caitlin served as a the Facilities Coordinator for on-campus session, and was the camp director at both the Fullerton and Tustin AIW Camp locations. She has coordinated grants for the Fullerton School District’s non-profit arts education program “All the Arts.” In this role, she has helped develop after-school programs, summer camps, arts education professional development activities, student art shows, and community outreach strategies.

In addition, Caitlin has been a project liaison for several years, taught art lessons to elementary school students, and taught English for three years in rural Japan. She is an award-winning, cum laude graduate from Mount Holyoke College.

Writing has always been a passion for Caitlin, and she enjoys writing book and play reviews for local media organizations, and working on her own collections of short stories. Beyond her talents and experience, Caitlin is an infectiously upbeat and creative person. She can’t wait to nurture that love in elementary students through Adventures in Writing Camp! Caitlin believes that fostering a love for writing in students at an early age is a vital part of their success in academics.

A caring and inspiring leader, Zoe is also a 5th and 6th English Language Arts Teacher in Indianapolis. Pre-COVID, she spent her summers in San Jose with her family and working for Adventures in Writing Camp. She enjoys how the camp teaches writing in a fun and interactive way! Zoe has been teaching for 7 years and has been involved in Adventures in Writing Camp for the past 5 years. Zoe received her undergrad degree in arts education at UCLA, and went on to receive her Masters in Education at Loyola Marymount University.

Sydney was born and raised in West Central Missouri and attended college at Oklahoma City University earning a degree in Vocal Music Education and pursued a Masters degree in Opera Performance. After college, Sydney worked at Paycom Payroll where she implemented over $2,000,000.00 in client revenue in various industries. Sydney brings a combination of creativity and logistics to the AIW team! As she interacts with AIW team members, Sydney’s goal is to empower people to shine their light as bright as they can.

Sydney has been in the performing arts since she was a small child. She travels the world as a professional opera singer and engages with audiences of all ages! Sydney operates a budding music studio and teaches private voice and piano to foster creativity and a love of arts and music in all students.

She also taught ESL to adults from South America and other parts of the world to help them pass the TOEFL exam and to enter universities in the U.S. Alissa was raised in Chicago, Illinois but has lived in many other places, including Washington, Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Argentina, Mexico, South Korea and Thailand. She speaks Korean, English, and Spanish.

While being a teacher, she created her own activities and curriculum to enhance learning and help build confidence in her students.

Blake’s background includes extensive experience in web application development and commercial art and design, which enables him to provide a fusion between creative and technical. He has been involved in web development since 1996 and has worked with several education focused companies, including ASK Learning. Blake is an accomplished photographer and videographer, currently working on a stop motion short about a young boy’s vivid imagination as an Astronaut. He is originally from Sydney, Australia.