Meet the Team at Mathnasium of Southtowns

Natalie

Natalie joined the Mathnasium team in June 2019 after returning from an assignment as a teaching assistant on a Fulbright scholarship in Germany. After her first year with Mathnasium, she was promoted to lead instructor, where she helped teach our instructors the Mathnasium method of instruction. Natalie is a native of East Aurora and a 2016 graduate of SUNY Geneseo, where she received dual BA majors in Mathematics and Psychology. Additionally, she earned her Masters of Education at SUNY Fredonia in 2021 and currently teaches at Riverside High in Buffalo. She has a passion for teaching English as a second language and helping students understand and find a love for Math.

Cailey

Cailey joined the Mathnasium team in March of 2021 as a part-time math instructor from Frontier High School where she graduated 3rd in her class. She was a member of the National Honor Society and mentors students in the foreign language club where she taught Spanish. In addition to academics, her favorite sport is gymnastics and she is a member of the FHS gymnastics team. Cailey says “I enjoy teaching math because I like to help others understand things in a supportive environment in a way that makes sense to them. I liked math because I always felt like it was a puzzle to be solved and that sometimes there were multiple ways to get to the same answer you might not have realized. I discovered that I like to teach others after helping my younger cousin when she wasn't attending school.” Cailey earned an academic scholarship at Hilbert College where she will study Forensic Science. In her free time, she likes to read and practice viola. Cailey excels at understanding the Mathnasium Method and assists in training new instructors and is working towards her assistant director appointment.

Jake

Jake is a native of Elma, he joined the #MathnasiumSouthtowns instructional team in October of 2019 when he was a senior at Iroquois HS where he graduated 7th in his class of 170 with an advanced Regents degree. He played baseball for four years with the Chiefs at center field and pitcher. Jake earned a presidential scholarship to attend Fredonia State where he just completed his freshman year with a 4.0 GPA during a pandemic! He's majoring in applied mathematics and pursuing dual minors in data science and statistics. Jake is a huge sports fan and he likes working with BIG Data. His goal is to work with professional sports teams in their analytics department where they find competitive advantages both on and off the field by finding statistical correlations that the teams' managers and coaches can use in their strategies to exploit their rivals. Our Mathletes love working with Jake because he's cool and he helps them understand their math in a way that makes sense to them.

Emily

Joe

Joe graduated from Frontier Central High School in the spring of 2022, ranking 14th in his graduating class of 333 with a GPA of 98.7. Joe has been active in sports and music and is a member of the National Honor Society. Volleyball has been his passion for five years, and he plays the euphonium. Additionally, Joe recently received his Eagle Scout badge after doing a community restoration project and earning 40 other badges. Joe had many options for his collegiate career but has chosen to attend University at Albany in August, where he will study actuarial science. Joe enjoys working at Mathnasium because he likes helping others understand the math he wants.

Harlain

Harlain came to Mathnasium in June of 2021 as a junior at the University at Buffalo. She is pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. Harlain is a 2019 Nardin Academy graduate where she graduated with honors and was awarded the Ruth Kraus Krahe Buettner '46 Math Award Scholar. She is part of the Engineers for World Health Club and the Society of Women Engineers at UB. Harlain is fluent in Hindi and Punjabi and intermediate in Urdu. She enjoys solving problems, teamwork and excels at creativity, and has a passion for learning. Harlain loves numbers and enjoys helping kids learn how and why numbers work.

Bryan Carr

Bryan is the Owner and Center Director at Mathnasium of the Southtowns. Prior to opening his Mathnasium center, Bryan's career was focused on the newspaper industry for over 30 years, most recently serving as a Vice President with The Buffalo News, leading an operations management team in manufacturing. He previously held operations positions with the Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. He has an MBA from the University of Buffalo, an MS from RIT, and a BS from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. Bryan is enthusiastic about helping families and their children master their math!

Areeba

Areeba joined Mathnasium in August of 2022; she is going into her sophomore year at Frontier CSD and attending the UB Gifted Math program. Areeba was born and raised in Princess Anne, Maryland, and came to Hamburg when she was 10. She enjoys swimming playing tennis, singing, reading, and coding. Areeba's favorite number is 17 because it's one before 18, the age of adulthood. It's an odd number that she prefers. "What I like most is seeing kids' faces light up they're able to solve math problems using the Mathnasium Methods we use. It's rewarding to me knowing that I helped them reach that point, and they understand."

Kyle

Kyle is a sophomore at Frontier High School, and he has always been good at math and finds it a nice challenge. He's passionate about helping children understand math in a way that makes sense. His favorite number is 7, because it's lucky and it's his jersey number in Hockey. Kyle has two sisters; Cailey, a Mathnasium instructor, and Emiley. Kyle likes to play hockey for the Hamburg Hawks in his spare time and will try out for the Frontier HS team for the 2022-2023 season. Kyle volunteers as a skating instructor for the Gliding Stars.

Daniel

Daniel is a 2018 SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry graduate and joined Mathnasium in November of 2022 as a part-time instructor, teaching math after work. Daniel's day job is working as an Assistant Sanitary Engineer for Erie County, where he designs and evaluates sewerage projects. Daniel was a peer tutor at SUNY-ESF, and here are a few reasons why he likes math and enjoys helping others learn and understand it. "I've always liked tinkering and building things since middle school. I quickly learned that a little prep and design work goes a long way when putting something together. Often, that prep work is math. So learning math was somewhat of a necessity. Because of that, I've always found applied math to be the most interesting." "The best thing about helping people learn math is when a once-difficult concept clicks, and then it becomes clear. When I was tutoring in college, it became clear that the main struggle in many cases is not the difficulty of the material but the method that it is presented. Finding the method that clicks for people and leads to the "Aha!" moment is the best part of helping one learn math." "My favorite number is 32.2! It's the acceleration due to gravity in ft/s/s and one of the most common constants."