About the Founder of New York Academics

Jessie Mathisen graduated from Binghamton University with a bachelor's degree in biology. In 2000, Jessie was working at the Stroud Water Research Center on a project monitoring the health of New York City's drinking water. She was also rowing recreationally at the Wilmington Rowing Club.

At the rowing club, Jessie fell in with a group of retired women who needed a coach to help them improve their rowing skills and work more effectively as a team. She stepped up, and before long she was enjoying the educational aspect of coaching so much that she decided to move back to New York City and become a public school science teacher.

Jessie found classroom teaching to be rewarding and challenging, but she craved two things: the ability to focus in on individual students and an opportunity to be her own boss. Tutoring seemed like an ideal fit- and it was.

She started her private tutoring career in 2004 and quickly became highly sought after. Kids love lessons with her and parents love seeing both their children's enthusiasm and their increased achievement. Jessie has rigorous standards and believes that every child can succeed when the right individual approach is found.

Jessie's current goals include working to professionalize tutoring and finding increasingly effective ways to teach students to teach themselves, so that they take away valuable life skills in addition to specific test-taking or academic knowledge from their tutoring sessions. In her spare time, she still enjoys rowing.

Brooke Harbaugh
Brooke graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida in 2006 with a B.A. in English. As an undergrad, she studied abroad in Oviedo, Spain. For the last two years, Brooke has been teaching English abroad in China and, most recently, in Argentina through the Fulbright Program. She moved to NYC in 2009 to work as a drama facilitator, director, and Spanish teacher. Brooke loves teaching, sharing her passion for languages and the arts, and learning from her students.

Brooke graduó de la Universidad de Rollins en Winter Park, Florida en el año 2006 con una licenciatura en inglés. Como estudiante universitaria, ella estudió al extranjero en Oviedo, España. Los dos años pasados, Brooke enseñó inglés en China y, recientemente, en Argentina con el programa Fulbright. Se mudó a Nueva York para trabajar como maestra de drama, directora, y profesora de español. A Brooke le encanta enseñar, compartir su pasion por los idiomas, el arte y aprendizaje.

Gabriella Pinto
Gabriella Pinto graduated from Yale University in 2007 with a degree in English and Theater.

She discovered her love of teaching and tutoring early. In high school, her distinguished academic record - which included being designated a National Merit Finalist and a National AP Scholar - made her a highly sought-after tutor for a range of academic subjects. In college, she worked to combine her love of teaching with her interest in the arts. Over the years she has taught both groups and individuals in diverse subjects including ballet, drama, music, and English.

Most recently she spent three months teaching English to children in refugee camps in the Middle East. She hopes to eventually pursue an advanced degree in Human Rights and continue working with disadvantaged children in the Middle East and Africa.

Drew A.
Drew is currently working on a PhD in Physics and has already earned a BA in Physics, a Masters in History, and a Masters in Physics, all from the University of Rochester. Although he is still a graduate student at the University of Rochester, he lives and works in New York City.

He discovered a love of teaching as well as learning while acquiring his many degrees and as a result he has been tutoring secondary and college students in mathematics, physics, chemistry, economics, writing, history, and standardized test preparation since 2003. He has also taught college physics and writing classes for a total of fifteen semesters.

Drew enjoys traveling and he tries to take a longer trip every few years. His last excursion was to the African country of Malawi where he stayed with a family in a small village for three weeks. For his next trip, he would like to travel to either China or India.