Meet the Team at Mathnasium of Eagan

Bari Kahar, Owner/Advisor, Ed.D. Candidate, PENN CLO

Favorite number: 39. Something funny about math: Life is all about numbers and organizing them. One life philosophy that you want every student to learn: Always get done the easy and simple math done in your math test first. Academic background: Masters in Education Leadership, Public Policy, and International Development from the University of St. Thomas, Bachelor's in Computer science from Minnesota State University. How you fell in love with math: When my eighth-grade teacher Mr. Kashem taught me how to always score better math scores. He has been a school district parent and community educator since early 2000. With his three sons Aver, Reevu and Ray he is a busy parent always. He even gets busier, when 140 other parents are asking him to develop their kids' love for math. His mission is to make the after-school additional Math learning experience as fun and accessible as possible to the 20, 000 students around him.

Irina Kahar, Owner/Principal Instructor, Ph.D. in Computer Engineering

Irina's favorite number is 6. She has a PhD. in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in Michigan. She has taught students in High school, College, and Universities for more than 15 years. Currently, in her full-time role, she is a Data Management Specialist at Mayo Clinic. With three sons, Mathnasium is something she enjoys on the side. Irina thinks a mathematician is "a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there." One life philosophy she wants every student to learn: whatever happens in life, happens for something good. She fell in love with math doing Algebra.

Thomas

Tom's favorite number is zero. Tom enjoys strategy games, cycling, and astronomy. He holds bachelor's degrees in Physics and Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. He sees mathematics as the indispensable tool for understanding the world.

Nathan, University of Minnesota, Math Major

Nathan’s favorite number is exp(pi/163), a strange irrational number that is remarkably close to an integer. He is currently a student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities with majors in Mathematics and Computer Science. Twice he has scored the highest in Minnesota on the annual Putnam math exam - known for its extreme difficulty. Outside of mathematics he enjoys backpacking, mountain climbing, and playing the piano

Howard

Howard is a retired high school math teacher, tech-school computer programming instructor, and software engineer mostly in high-performance computing and internet app development.  He has lived in Minnesota all his life and received his degree from St. Cloud State University studying math, physics, and secondary education.  He was certified in Minnesota to teach high school math and physics.  His academic passion has always been mathematics.  In retirement his ambition is to be a resource for students needing some additional help and, if possible, help them acquire the same love for math that he has. His favorite number is the imaginary number i.

Logan

Logan Prochaska is a dedicated instructor at Mathnasium Eagan, passionate about helping students build a strong foundation in math. His favorite number is the number 8 and enjoys playing tennis in his spare time, Logan is committed to delivering personalized instruction and support, ensuring each student achieves success and confidence in mathematics. Logan looks forward to helping students unlock their full potential, having a fun time learning math.

Jonah

Jonah is attending the University of Minnesota for a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics as a sophomore. His favorite number is 255. Besides math, he has an interest in reading (and sometimes writing) novels, playing puzzle games, and coding. He also likes watching anime, and is currently learning Japanese. Jonah loves math because it’s logical and, for any given problem, will have a single answer that is “most correct.”