Instructors – Journey Learning Studio

Mrs. Chang is a certified K-12 Chinese teacher and has 20 years of experience working with students across various areas from Taiwan, California, and Ohio. She earned her bachelor’s in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan University and her master’s in Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Originally from Taiwan, she has lectured at the Taiwan University of Arts and worked at the Ministry of Education. After moving to the US, she has taught heritage Chinese schools in California and public schools in Ohio for years. She is currently serving as an instructor for a youth gifted program. She has always been excited to teach because of the wonderful students and families she meets along the way. She created Journey Learning Studio (JLS) and Journey Chinese Academy (JCA) out of her passion for education and parenting, with the aim of helping students and families start a new journey of learning together.

Mrs. Cheng received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Master’s degree in Marketing Communications from Northwestern University in Chicago and currently works as a marketing manager for a leading global nutritional food company. In high school, she was a National Merit Scholar and Ohio Speech League Champion. She is also a pianist and viola player who has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Severance Hall. In recent years, she has developed and presented marketing programs for the former Vice President of Sales at Google, the Dean of the Marketing Program at Northwestern University, and various corporate clients (P&G, Burger King, IBM, Chicago Film Festival, etc.). She has much experience in the field of marketing, teaching and education and is willing to help young people pursue their passions and expertise.

Mrs. Konopinski earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Oberlin College and her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In college, she studied various methodologies of teaching and tutoring writing and had the opportunity to work with college students in the Oberlin Writing Associate program. During her time teaching as an elementary school English teacher, she deepened her interest and experience in working with students to hone their writing skills and develop their passion for the English language. She is also an experienced piano teacher of ten years and has helped students to compete and win at state and international competitions.

Mrs. Brown graduated from the University of Michigan Department of Psychology with a Bachelor’s degree in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience. She began work as a Research Assistant for the Department of Psychology and Department of Education and continued research work at Michigan Medicine Department of Family Medicine. Soon after, she earned her Master’s degree in Health Informatics at the University of Michigan Medical School, School of Public Health, and School of Information. She works on projects to implement value-based care strategies for healthcare providers/payers so that they can provide better care for individuals, improve population health management strategies, and reduce healthcare costs. She has a great deal of experience teaching reading, writing, math and science, and is passionate about helping children learn.

Ms. Chan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Nursing with a minor in Healthcare Management. She has been tutoring her peers and elementary school students in English and Math for over 8 years and recently received a TESOL certificate to teach English as a second language. She attended a STEM high school and has taken AP Biology, AP World History, and AP U.S. History. She is passionate about teaching and enjoys working with students of all ages.

Mr. Bird is a university student at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec studying Geography and Chinese Language, and he is originally from Hudson, Ohio. He has been learning Mandarin Chinese now for over eight years and has always been struck by the beauty of the language. He received an Ohio Seal of Biliteracy in 2019, passed the AP Chinese Test, and was selected for regional speech competitions in both Cleveland and Montreal. He is a two time school winner of the National Geographic Bee. He hopes to inspire the same appreciation for Chinese language, culture, and history in as many people as he can, and to be able to help start young people on their Chinese learning journey.

Ms. Ventresca is a student at Yale University double majoring in Economics and Theater and Performance Studies. Through the National Honor Society Peer Tutor Program and instructing Taekwondo classes as a fourth-degree black belt, she has taught students of all ages in multiple disciplines. Having been named a National Merit Scholar and AP Scholar with Distinction for her academics and service in high school, Ms. Ventresca is also very familiar with the college application, interview, and admissions processes. She received acceptances from universities such as Princeton, Stanford, Brown, Cornell, and Duke, in addition to the Stamps Scholarship at Notre Dame and the Jefferson Scholarship at the University of Virginia. Ms. Ventresca is passionate about engaging with students in meaningful ways while building confidence in the classroom. She hopes to help students define and reach their own ideas of success as well as grant them the tools they will need to excel on their standardized assessments such as the SAT and AP exams.

Originally from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Ms. Li went to Ohio State University in 1999 to pursue her Master’s degree in Computer Science, where she worked as a teaching assistant and also taught undergraduate courses. After graduating in 2002, Ms. Li has been working in Cleveland Clinic since then. Ms. Li loves Chinese and enjoys teaching Chinese to children. Both of Ms. Li’s children studied Chinese at Journey Chinese School (JCA), and after one year, they improved their Chinese language skills and found JCA’s curriculum and teaching style to be very helpful. As a result, Ms. Li is willing to join the classroom ranks of JCA and hopes to do her part in promoting Chinese language learning. With good teaching materials is a good start, and Ms. Li will use the practical and rich teaching materials of JCA to guide more children to learn Chinese, build a solid foundation for learning Chinese, and enjoy the sense of accomplishment and fun of learning Chinese.

Ms. Sun earned her bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering from Northwestern University. After graduation, she worked on cancer therapeutics research in the Seattle Children’s Immunotherapy Integration Hub, focusing on developing T-cell manufacturing solutions to childhood leukemia. Her work with fluidics robots and data science in the lab prompted a newfound interest in computer programming. In 2021, she received a certificate in CS50 Introduction to Computer Science from HarvardX, and continues her programming journey through completing online courses and developing web applications. In her free time, she enjoys making clay magnets, participating in hackathons, and drinking tea.

Mr. Hao graduated from Northwestern University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science. In 2016, his team took first place at the People’s Music School Hackathon with an interactive educational music app. In 2018, his team won first place in Northwestern’s annual robotics competition by scoring the most points against their opponents. Since graduating he has been developing cloud infrastructure as a software engineer at Microsoft. In 2020, he collaborated to design and ship a patent-pending virtual machine allocation algorithm. He is a volunteer mentor for Mentors in Tech, a computer science mentorship program aimed at helping overlooked tech students succeed in the tech industry. In his free time, he develops the online hymnal app “Songs” which makes hymns accessible online. He also enjoys producing and releasing music.

Ms. Neifert is a student at the Ohio State University and is originally from Hudson, Ohio. She is studying neuroscience and intends to pursue a career as a pediatrician. During the school year, she tutors elementary and middle school students in math, reading, and art. She spent three summers doing pediatric research at the Cleveland Clinic, and this past summer she worked at an educational summer camp where she taught health and wellness. She loves talking and laughing with young people, and she is passionate about teaching and helping students achieve their goals. She is also passionate for theatrical performing arts and has attended Shakespeare and other several performances.

Mr. Wagner is a graduate from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and is currently working toward passing the uniform CPA exam to become a licensed accountant. Outside of academics, Mr. Wagner spends his time sailing, golfing, and playing chess. He has been tutoring students and he enjoys working with and guiding them to solve different math related problems.

Mr. Wang is a rising senior at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is studying Statistics, with minors in Philosophy and Music. He is proficient in R Programming, having completed multiple data analysis projects. Some of these include a research paper where he calculated an optimized linear regression model for a data set, and a sentiment analysis system that deciphers opinionated language from an article of the user’s input. Mr. Wang is also an avid musician, having been in 6 bands throughout high school and university. He has performed at various music venues around Cleveland, such as The Grog Shop and Mahall’s. In his down time, Mr. Wang enjoys listening to music and jamming with his friends.

Mr. Cheng is a rising freshmen at Purdue University and majoring in Engineering. He has taken many honors and AP courses. Jason was able to bridge to AP Chinese through JLS and is currently taking AP French at high school. Jason is a TA for Chinese, Math, and SAT courses. Last year, he took a main role in restarting his school’s Science Olympiad program. Jason’s love for music is shown by his many years of playing the piano and two years of harp. In 2019, Jason participated in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The following year, Jason would go on to be a semifinalist for the 2020 Spell Pundit National Online Spelling Bee. During the 2023 March SATs, Jason was able to earn a perfect Superscore of 1600. Due to his score, he was able to do two rounds of SAT tutoring for Schoolhouse World in both English and Math.

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Journey Learning Studio

Jessica Chang

Jocelyn Cheng

Shulamite Konopinski

Christina Brown

Linda Chan

Ethan Bird

Emma Ventresca

Sarah Li

Lulu Sun

Eric Hao

Nicole Neifert

David Wagner

Josh Wang

Jason Cheng