Ms. Jingda Whatley is an experienced teacher and educational counselor with a deep passion for helping students to develop their abilities and reach their potential in their educational journey. She is experienced in promoting excellence and achievement in many areas, including mathematics, Chinese language and the natural and social sciences. She is a trusted advisor who has helped students to excel in academics and in personal development, and has guided students to successful applications to highly selective secondary schools and universities.
Ms. Whatley is the CEO and principal teacher and curriculum developer for mathematics enrichment and Olympiad mathematics competition classes in Ivyclimbers Mathematics. Ms. Whatley also organizes both individual participants and student teams for mathematics, engineering and science competitions. The students she advises have achieved excellent results in the following contests and programs:
- The Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament – HMMT
- The American Mathematics Competitions series – including the AMC 10/12, AIME and USAMO competitions
- The United States Computing Olympiad (USACO)
- The USA Physics Olympiad (USAPhO)
- The Mandelbrot Competition
- The USA Chemistry Olympiad
- The Purple Comet! Math Meet
- The Texas A&M Computer Science and Engineering Competition
- The Texas A&M High School Mathematics Contest
- MATHCOUNTS
- American Computer Science League – ACSL
- State and National Science Fairs – Intel, Siemens, Texas Science and Engineering Fair
- Distributive Education Club of America – DECA
- TEAMS – Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science
- The USA Biology Olympiad (USABO) and the British Biology Olympiad (BBO)
Professor Haley Stoner (M.A., M.T.S.), English Professor at Lone Star College-Montgomery, loves helping her students become confident writers and critical thinkers. She has twelve years of experience in teaching composition courses, including two years of high school teaching experience, three years as Pool Faculty for Sam Houston State University, and five years as a full faculty member for Lone Star College. In her current role as lead faculty for the Honors College at Lone Star College-Montgomery, Prof. Stoner works with scholarship students to prepare them for transfers to prestigious universities. She also teaches courses in American Literature and Technical Communications, and as a faculty sponsor for student organizations such as Rotaract, she enjoys facilitating connections for students in our community. Prof. Stoner is an avid participant in academia, having presented papers for multiple conferences, and co-chaired a conference for over 160 English professors in the Southwest region. She finds her greatest reward in the success of her students.
Dr. Karpoor Shashidhar received his B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from The University of Madras in 2001, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from The University of Connecticut in 2004 and 2010, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX. His research interests include Cryptography, Information Hiding, Steganography, Electronic Voting and Security, Peer-to-Peer/Sensor Networks and Context-aware pervasive communication.
Dr. Karpoor was a part of the Voting Technology and Research Center (VoTeR) at the University of Connecticut where he advised the State of CT on the security and deployment of electronic voting machines. He also serves as a Program Evaluator for the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) for Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). He has over 50 conference/journal publications and also serves in the editorial advisory/review board and the Technical Program Committee (TPC) of a number of books, journals and conferences
Mathematics Professor Jianzhong Wang
Professor Wang has been a full professor at Sam Houston State University since 2003. He has more than thirty years of experience in teaching mathematical courses, including six years of high school teaching experience. At Sam Houston State University, he has taught twenty different courses, including College Algebra, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, and other courses at senior level and in mathematics and statistics graduate programs. He is also a strong researcher. He has published over 80 research papers, one graduate textbook, one research monograph, and received several research grants, including grants from National Sciences Foundations.
Dr. Huaijin Zhou is an experienced teacher who has taught mathematics to young students and also taught Biology and Microbiology courses at local colleges. Dr. Zhou received her B.S. degree in Biology from Wuhan University, and her Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from the University of Kansas Medical Center. She had more than 10 years of research experience in both academic and industrial settings. In her spare time, she enjoys solving math problems with her kids.
Dr Luyan Wang is a well known teacher of mathematics, and has a deep interest and enjoyment in sharing his subject and teaching students. Dr. Wang has been a passionate math teacher for different math academic and competition training programs. He was the assistant coach to the first Chinese International Math Olympiad team and has deep experience in Math Olympiad training, and also in preparing students in many mathematics competitions at all levels. Many of his past students were top math awards winners, including at the International Math Olympiad.
Dr Wang was a mathematics lecturer and instructor at Beijing University from 1983 to 1994, and received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001
Dr. David Stancato is a Professor of Physics at Lone Star College-Montgomery, where he has ten years of experience teaching college and university level physics courses. He received his B.S. in physics in 2004 and his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics in 2011, both from the University of California at Davis. In addition to teaching courses, Dr. Stancato is a faculty advisor for the Lone Star-Montgomery Engineering Club and is active in mentoring student honors projects in physics. His greatest passion lies in the teaching and learning process, and he is committed to helping students succeed at all levels of physics
Natalie Baba M.Ed
My name is Natalie Baba. I am a certified Texas teacher and expert in Common Core, Texas state standards, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. As an experienced teacher, I am dedicated to bridging the learner to the process and ensuring all students succeed based on their individualized needs. International education is my utmost priority, and books are where we find common ground!
I currently teach English Literature at an international private school in Houston, where I have worked for the past six years. Previously, I worked in public schools across Houston’s diverse districts in grades K-12 where I taught English, Spanish, and History for the past 15 years. My favorite endeavor was when I taught at a private school in Kuwait in 2015, where I experienced the start of my international teaching journey. Languages are a powerful tool in developing peaceful relationships: I speak three languages and am currently working on my French; therefore, I take the importance of language seriously as I do with all my students.
I am thrilled to learn about your child and guide them into the world of humanities, where each one can improve scores and excel in writing to make profound analyses about texts.
Prof. Jie Song
Prof. Song graduated in 2002 with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (Theoretical/computational Chemistry) and did postdoc research at Ames Laboratory, USDOE.
Since 2004, he has been Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Chemistry at University of Michigan-Flint and regularly teaches one-year General Chemistry (the college analog of AP Chemistry) and Physical Chemistry. He broad experience of test construction and grading, including American Dental Association Dental Admission Test (DAT) (2005-2010), American Chemical Society Examination Institute Physical Chemistry Exam Construction Committee (2008-2014), AP Chemistry Exam reader (2013-2022), and AP Chemistry Test Construction Training (2014).
He has tutored many high school students. Among them, 60% got 5 in AP and 30% with a grade of 4. In addition, many students were qualified for USNCO National Exam and about 10 students got USNCO High Honor Award (nationally top 50), Honor Award (top 150), Honorable mentioned (nationally top 151-200), USNCO summer camp (top 20), Canadian summer camp (top 10), as well as 2021 US IChO team (won a gold medal) and 2022 Canada IChO team. In addition, he also serves as the judge for Special Award on Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.
Dr. Shu Feng, MD and Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine. Apart from her academic work at the college, Dr. Feng is also strongly passionate about educating the future generations. Dr. Feng has been teaching the Weekend Math Enrichment Courses and Gifted and Talented Preparation Courses at Houston Huaxia Chinese School for many years. Her students have successfully entered into highly selective public schools or their local school zone GT programs with excellent scores. In Dr. Feng’s classes, students learn not only about math, logic and patterns, but most importantly, she strives to inspire their curiosity and critical thinking, and help them build up a solid foundation for academic excellence and success in any assessments.
Instructor: Juanjuan Cao
Ms. Cao is a 7~12 Grade Math and Science teacher certified by Texas Education Agency. She has eight years teaching experience and has been teaching at Houston ISD in the past five years. She received her doctor’s degree in Geophysics in 2010 at University of Texas at Dallas. Ms. Cao is a passionate teacher, she helped great number of students with SAT Math, ACT Math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus and Physics.