Meet the Team at Mathnasium of Hancock Park

Marcus

Marcus is currently starting his first year in Grad School for School-Based Family Counseling at Cal State LA. During high school, he tutored Math and Science to elementary school students over the summer. Math has always been a strong subject for Marcus and he wanted to take his experience further by joining Mathnasium. He has a passion for helping kids understand Math and to make their experience enjoyable along the way. "Growth and Change does not happen if the person does not enjoy the journey that they're on." During his free time, he likes playing basketball, the saxophone, or pool. Marcus' goal is to building long-lasting relationships with every student so they can have the tools and confidence to tackle any problem that stands in front of them.

Josue

Josue was born and raised in Los Angeles, and had the fortunate experience to attend UC Irvine, where he learned how big the world is, met my other half, and led and expanded an engineering student organization. After leaving UCI, Josue thought a lot about his future, and he thought a lot about what led him to this point. One thing he'll never forget is his math teacher in 9th grade that didn't give up on him when he was struggling in school. It took Josue a bit of time, but he ultimately decided that he wanted to pursue teaching, and help guide others the same way that teacher did for him. Being an instructor here is Josue's first step, and he hopes to inspire our students and help them learn how vital math is. In his free time, Josue is developing a video game with friends, likes listening to records for hours, and working on various open-source projects.

Kenneth

Kenneth Guevara is a graduate from Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics Education. With the help and encouragement of experienced math instructors, he has developed both an interest in math and a desire to help others with their understanding of the subject. Over the years he has tutored many people in math, including classmates, other students, and even some of his neighbors. Much of his tutoring experience comes from working with high school and college students who were taking Algebra courses. Kenneth is very helpful and will help math students understand any areas of confusion or difficulty. In his spare time, Kenneth enjoys reading, bike riding, chess, and video games.

Edgar

Edgar was born in Pico Union, a neighborhood adjacent to Downtown LA only separated by the 110 freeway. Edgar graduated from USC in 2021 with a degree in Neuroscience and a Minor in French. While at USC, he was a part of the Trojan Marching Band and joined several organizations that aimed to help the surrounding communities. Math wasn’t always kind to him until he made it a personal goal to get better and ultimately he was able to help his classmates. Edgar has always enjoyed working with kids, especially in helping them realize that nothing is out of their grasp and that they are capable of more than they can imagine. During his free time Edgar enjoys playing sports, visiting museums, learning how to dance and going to the beach.

William

William is a senior in high school and he enjoy many hobbies such as volleyball, video games, and playing the piano. Math has led him to admire so many topics that it branches out to, such as statistics, computer science, and even economics. He has always wanted to become a teacher or professor sometime in the future. Working with students and helping his friends has opened up a new path that he plans on gaining more experience in and participating in for some remainder of my life. William has had the pleasure of receiving an education from skilled and amazing math teachers that inspire me to pursue what he love.

Joseph

Joseph was born and raised in Koreatown, Los Angeles. He attended the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) up to junior year before graduating early. During his years as a student, Joseph worked hard to prove himself academically, scoring a perfect 800 on his SAT II: Math subject test, placing first in Academic Decathlon, and joining his school’s NHS program. Since then, Joseph has pursued many different ventures from working in retail management and marketing analytics, to operating and founding several e-commerce businesses of his own, to finally becoming an instructor here at Mathnasium. Currently, Joseph is preparing to go back to school to pursue a new career in law.

Jacob

Jacob is a senior studying applied and computational mathematics at USC. At university, he takes part in several music groups and participates in the campus hackathons. He actually started his academic journey as a pre-medicine biology major, but after taking math classes such as topology to study how proteins fold, he discovered how much he enjoyed math. He has always appreciated the subject, particularly the realm of discrete math, and is deeply invested in its applications to the real world. Here at Mathnasium, he hopes to inspire a similar interest and desire to learn in his students. During his free time, he produces music and creates digital signal processing applications for audio workspaces. He finds music to be an amazing intersect between math and art.

Janice

Janice Yoon is a Math Instructor at Mathnasium of Hancock Park. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. While attending John Marshall High School, she volunteered as a tutor for grades K-8 every summer at a local summer school for low-income families. Upon graduating, she continued to pursue her passion for helping children and worked with students K-3 at Spreckels Elementary School in San Diego and Hudnall Elementary School in Inglewood.

Dan Saposhnik

Dan graduated from the University of Arizona in 1985 with a B.S. in Microbiology and from Hofstra University's Graduate School of Business in 1990 with an MBA in Accounting. He worked as a CPA with public accounting firm Price Waterhouse and has built successful companies in various fields including real estate and executive recruiting. Dan's passion for teaching and love for working with kids is rooted in family tradition. His mother was a highly regarded principal in Las Vegas for nearly 30 years. Dan has taught and tutored children of all ages and was a mentor for underprivileged children. Dan is committed to significantly increasing Hancock Park children's math skills, their understanding of math concepts and their overall school performance. "We provide lots of warm encouragement in a very positive learning environment so that children build their confidence and develop a winning attitude towards math. Our kids learn math in a way that makes sense to them. They get excited about math and this spirit carries over into everything they do."

Laurie Wasser Saposhnik

Laurie graduated from UCLA in 1986 with a B.A. in Communication Studies. Prior to joining Mathnasium, Laurie worked for various Fortune 500 high tech companies such as IBM, SAP, EMC, TIBCO and MicroStrategy. Laurie's passion for teaching and love for working with kids is rooted in family tradition. Her father taught special education at the high school level for over 30 years in California. Laurie is committed to partnering with the Hancock Park community to increase Hancock Park children's math skills, their understanding of math concepts and their confidence in their ability to be successful.

Alan Brown

Alan was born in Las Vegas but spent the majority of his educational career in Northern Nevada. He went to Spanish Springs High School, where he was a triathlete and earned his advanced & honors diploma. During his time there, he took almost every math class his high school offered and often tutored his fellow classmates. He then attended the University of Nevada, Reno in pursuit of a Biology degree. After completing his first year of college, he decided to transfer to UNLV to finish his undergraduate program. It was shortly after this transition that he became an instructor for Mathnasium. This opportunity allowed him to share his passion for teaching and mathematics. He was a lead instructor for three years while he earned his degree in Cell and Molecular Biology. He spent two years as a Center Director, where he shared his enthusiasm with the families at Mathnasium of Red Rock. Alan is now honored to serve all of our locations as Regional Director and continue changing lives through math.

Kevin Boushy

Kevin graduated from UNLV in 2012 with a Bachelors in Sociology. His appetite for learning has always been borderline insatiable. His focus on education and learning lead him to Mathnasium three years ago. Kevin cannot envision a place that inspires growth better than Mathnasium. It is his belief that every person is at their very best when they are safe to innovate, make mistakes, and grow into a position of understanding. One of Kevin's favorite qualities about Mathnasium is how we engage with our students and instructors by welcoming them into an environment where they learn and grow without the pressures of having to know everything at every turn. The art of mathematics is one of growth and development that Kevin is always excited to be part of.