Jonathan Sussman- Director & Founder

Jonathan graduated Cum Laude in 2003 from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with a BA in Economics and minor in Music. Jonathan founded Big City Tutoring in the summer of 2007 and is responsible for all the inner working of the company. He has spent time as a volunteer teaching computer skills and job readiness preparation for minority communities in New York City area. He currently volunteers for NY Cares tutoring under privileged high school students to achieve higher scores on their SATs. Having extensive experience working with a diverse group of students, Jonathan's background enables him to recruit tutors who share his passion for education. Jonathan is also an accomplished pianist and has been playing in bands since high school. He currently works at Yahoo! as a business analyst  and is planning on attending business school next year.

Ari Kalinowski

Ari graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Comparative Literature. His background and experience enable him to teach writing (creative, expository and research), English (vocabulary, grammar and comprehension), college applications, SAT preparation, and organzational & study skills. He also specializes in ADHD students, www.adhdtutor.wordpress.com. In addition to tutoring, Ari is working on his first novel and evetually plans to go abroad as an interntaional volunteer.

Amy Fortsch

Amy is graduating this May with a B.A. degree in Mathematics from CW Post University. She has tutored over 50 students over the past 3 years and her students have demonstrated a high success rate. Amy works hard to develop a lasting relationship with her students that enables them to relate to her and develop a will to succeed. She has worked with students on all levels with different learning styles. Amy's extensive experience in the field enables her to find great tutors who share her passion for teaching. Amy works as a tutor part time and aspires to attend business school and bring the excellent services of Big City Tutoring to Long Island.

Ella Aiken 

Ella graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Classics and Philosophy. She has tutored students in Latin for a number of years, and has been teaching preparatory courses for college and graduate admissions over the past year. She works closely with her students to come up with personalized plans and individualized worksheets to help them achieve the success and confidence they need. In addition to her teaching and tutoring experience, Ella works at a museum in Manhattan and will begin pursuing a law degree in the fall.

Brandon Cardet-Hernandez 

Brandon is a certified Special Education teacher at The Facing History School. He currently teaches 9th grade Humanities as well as a thematic history class called Race & Membership. He attended Eugene Lang College, a division of New School University and received his BA in Urban Studies. Brandon is currently receiving his MA in Education at City College. He has worked with young people for the last 6 years at various non-profits such as GLSEN, The Hettrick Martin Institute and the Committee for Hispanic Children & Families.

Ngina Duckett 

Ngina Ducket has dedicated her career to growth and development and crafting practical applications of the arts, culture and spirituality. Work experience includes developing standard based arts curricula for youth organizations and New York City Public Schools as well as teaching and tutoring students from ages 3 years old through adults. As an arts non-profit consultant, she coached executives on developing their vision, mission and programs. Ngina graduated from Harvard with a BA in Social Studies and attended the Hunter College pre-medical program.  

Shannon Flanagan

Shannon earned her Bachelor's degree from Santa Clara University in Civil Engineering and received her Masters in Secondary Mathematics Education. She has spent the past two years teaching high school math. During that time, she also taught a conceptual physics and Math A regents preparation course. She also has been involved in after school tutoring at Discovery High School. Shannon is one of the educational outreach directors for Engineering Without Borders and has worked with ASME on their pre-college outreach program. She has also interned with the Corp of Engineers and will be working again in civil engineering this fall.

Jocelyn Greene 

Jocelyn Greene holds a BA in both English and Spanish Literatures from Wesleyan University and an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Jocelyn has extensive experience tutoring all ages and levels in language arts, and specifically helps students hone their writing skills and reading comprehension. She has tutored for most standardized tests administered in New York City , including the SAT, ISEE, Hunter Test, and SHSAT. She has 7 years experience teaching Spanish and works with students from the beginner to the AP level. She has taught theatre arts for 3 years at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights and in the summer she teaches at the Berkeley Carroll School. Additionally, Jocelyn has worked with theatre companies in New York City, Connecticut and Los Angeles inspiring at risk youths to use creative writing for education and self discovery. Jocelyn's lessons are dynamic, engaging, warm and highly enriching.

Lindsey Palmer

Lindsey graduated in 2005 from the University of Pennsylvania receiving Summa Cum Laude from the honors program. Lindsey specializes in English and Math as she scored a perfect 1600 on her SATs. For four years she worked as a writing tutor in Penn's writing center for undergrads and graduate students. Throughout college, she tutored high school students in English, Spanish, reading comprehension and SAT preparation both in one-on-one and group settings. Lindsey currently lives in NYC and works as a writer for Redbook Magazine.

Rob Willison

Rob graduated Magna Cum Laude in Social Studies from Harvard University. He did two years of course work in Education at the Harvard School of Education and Brooklyn College. Rob taught US History, US Government and economics in New York City public schools for two years. His US history AP sudents scored the highest test scores in school history. Rob started his own tutoring program for junior high students at Harvard. He also led an SAT preparation course as well as a privavte SAT tutor. In addition to social studies and standardized testing Rob scored extremely high on his Latin and German AP exams. Rob is currently a graduate student in philosophy at the CUNY grad center.

Barbara Newmark

Barbara received her Master of Fine Arts in writing from Sarah Lawrence College in 2006. As a recently accepted New York Teaching Fellow, she will pursue a Masters in Science of Education at Fordham University. In September she will began teaching english at the High School for Environmental Studies. Barbara has extensive experience teaching college writing, creative writing and basic writing at SUNY Purchase and Nassau Community College, and currently teaches poetry to 6th grade students as an artist in residence for the Brooklyn Arts Council. Her poems have appeared in Vernacular, A Longford Literary Project, and Nimrod International Literary Journal.

Jeffrey Vainshtein

Jeff graduated Magna Cum Laude with high distinction from Cornell University in 2003 with a BA in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Over the past 5 years he has worked as a tutor for Kaplan Test Prep. He has taught preparatory classes for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) in both classroom and individual settings. His greatest expertise is in biology, physics and chemistry as he scored in the 99 percentile on his MCAT. In addition, Jeff has experience tutoring high school students for the SAT math section, undergraduates for the Dental Admission Test (DAT) and medical students in various MD classes. He is currently a 4th year medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is spending the year conducting research on non-invasive liver transplantation technology, in preparation to enter residency training in radiation oncology.

Melissa Fishner

Melissa recently moved to New York City to work with an early invention therapist. Melissa lived and worked in a residential community for individuals diagnosed with Down Syndrome in order to provide more extensive support to her students. In addition, she helped start a religious school program in Florida for children and teens diagnosed with a variety of special needs. Melissa earned her degree in Special Education and Childhood Education from SUNY Geneseo and recently became NYS Certified in Early Childhood Education.

Lia Tocce

Lia graduated Summa Cum Laude from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey with a BA in Mathematics and a minor in Physics. Throughout college, she worked as a tutor both individually and in group settings. Employed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for two years following graduation, Lia provided support for the research and design of satellite navigation projects, specifically the Global Positioning System (GPS). Since then, she has graduated Summa Cum Laude with her Masters in Secondary Mathematics Education. Lia is currently in the middle of her third year teaching high school math and physics in New York City public schools.

Shok Dylan 

Shok graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor Degree in Business and Finance from the University of Colorado. Immediately Shok joined Shell Oil Company trading energy in Southern California. She also travelled to many third world countries and provided humanitarian aid to areas of poverty and conflict. Returning to the USA after working for Amazon.com in the UK as an operation manager, Shok joined the New York Teaching Fellows in 2005 and earned her Master degree in Education. Shok has been teaching math to grades 9-12 for the past two years. She specializes in preparing high school students to take the MATH A regents standardized exam (algebra, geometry and triginometry). Shok also provides after school tutoring to high risk and in need students through her, Bronx High School for Law and Finance. Shok speaks three languages fluently and manages in two others.

Melanie Mac

Melanie graduated Magna Cum Laude in French and Sociology/Anthropology from Middlebury College. She spent her junior year of college in Paris attending the Universite De Paris and teaching English to French college students. She also spent one summer at the Middlebury French Language School, an intensive summer immersion program. She then went on to recieve her Master of Science in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at the City College of New York. During her three years of teaching at the Discovery High School she started and coordinated an ESL program, taught French levels 1 through 4, taught English language arts and literature, and provided private tutoring in language learning, Regents exam preparation, and college essay writing. For this, her fourth year of teaching she has moved to History High School, a public high school, where she will be starting the school's French language program.

Michelle Heller 

Michelle graduated from Northwestern in 2001 with a double major in Cognitive Science and Spanish. Michelle recieved her Masters in Spanish, and has extensive travel experience in Spanish speaking countries. She has been teaching Spanish for 5 years to both native and non-native Spanish speakers from beginner to advanced levels.  Aside from Spanish Michelle has also taught math to middle schoolers and high school and prepared students for the Math A Regents exam. She has alos taught SAT math classes to students of all abilities.

Amaris Kinne 

Amaris graduated from Boston College with a BA in Human Development and an interdisciplinary major called Perspectives on Spanish America. She is fluent in Spanish as she studied Spanish throughout high and college and spent a year studying in Central America. After graduating from college, Amris joined the New York Teaching Fellows, where she spent two years teaching English as a second language at both the elementary and high school levels. Amaris recently graduated from the Lehman College with a Master of Science in Education. In addition to her professional experience, Amaris also coordinated a group of volunteers during college to serve in an ESL program for adults in the Boston area. Currently, Amaris is employed by the Department of Middle and High School at Lehman College. 

Musyoka Munyoki

Musyoka graduated from Cornell University with a BS in 2001 and received his Masters in Engineering from Cornell in 2003. He has years of tutoring experience in the fields of mathematics, physics, engineering, chemistry and SAT preparation. He currently works at Boricua College as an adjunct professor. Musyoka develops the curriculum for modern computer science courses and lectures the undergraduate students in computer science and technology courses.

Andrea Chod 

Andrea graduated Cum Laude from the University of Michigan with a BS in Engineering and went on to receive her MBA from the University of Maryland. She started tutoring in high school and continued through college. Post college she lived in Washington DC and worked at a tutoring agency where she tutored students of all ages in math, science and general academic studies. In addition to Andrea's extensive tutoring experience she currently works for a consulting firm as a senior Manager.

Roy Lee

Roy graduated from the honors program at Boston College earning a BA in English. He also earned his Masters in Secondary English from Boston College. Roy has been teaching 8th graders Language Arts for the past 3 years. He has both a Massachusetts and New York state certification to teach English grades 7-12. He has extensive experience in after school tutoring and standardized test preparation. He currently teaches in Long Island where he currently resides.

Julie Fitzpatrick

Julie has extensive experience working with children and young adults from a diverse group of backgrounds. She grew up in Guilford, Connecticut where she has contributed a great deal to The Shoreline Association of Retarded and Handicapped. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 she started her Masters studies at the American Conservatory Theater. During this time she helped students with their speech and language skills as well as their school work. Julie has helped students in their academic studies and has acted as a mentor for under priviliged children. She has worked as a "Big Sister", as well as in children's theater, and worked for BookPals while living in New York. Julie currently is an actress and writer. She has written 3 plays and has performed Off-Broadway in New York City for the past five years. Many of the shows she has done have had Educational Outreach programs which have connected her to students.

Naomi Sugar 

Naomi graduated Magna Cum Laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in International Studies and Afro-American studies. Naomi currently work as an HIV/AIDS program coordinator for project sunshine,an international non profit organization that provides free social, educational and recreational programs for children and families living with medical challenges. Naomi's area of expertise is the Hebrew language. She has over seven years of experience teaching Hebrew school in Boston, St. Louis and New York. Additionally she specializes in one on one tutoring for college, high school and elementary school children. Likewise, Naomi has spent extended periods of time living, working and learning in Israel, making her a well-rounded dedicated Hebrew teacher.