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About Us
Turning Interest Into Action!

YAPA Kids is a community organization dedicated to inspiring academic curiosity in young students (grades 1 to 8) as a supplement to the education provided by elementary and middle schools. Our team consists of a group of highly passionate and qualified high school students who are looking to share their experience and skills with their students.

Why do you like helping out YAPA Kids?
I love giving kids access to free extra curricular classes to further learn subjects they want to know more about.

What have you learned from teaching at YAPA Kids or otherwise contributing to the organization?
I have learned that doing everything alone is never the answer and that you should always be open to ask for help.

Abhinav Chalasani

Director of Operations

What do you enjoy about YAPA Kids?
I started being involved with YAPA Kids as a Python tutor, and that has been a very great experience. Being able to help young students develop projects that they can be proud of fills me with a sense of accomplishment, and I am so grateful for this opportunity. As the Director of Systems, it has been great to reach out to new people, and overall be a part of running such an amazing organization.

What have you learned from your experiences at YAPA Kids?
I have learned the importance of education, and what a privilege it is to have access to it, and I hope to continue inspiring academic curiosity in students. Along with that, I've developed my communication skills, and learned the importance of letting everyone have a voice.

Ashwin Vinod

Director Of Systems

What do you enjoy about YAPA Kids?
Being a teacher and a director, I enjoy working with YAPA Kids because of its mission: helping young children discover their inner passions in academics or the arts, while aiding high schooler teachers in connecting with their students. Furthermore, I have met many interesting, joyous, and awesome people with YAPA Kids, who have the initiative to drive or teach.

What have you learned from your experiences at YAPA Kids?
Through YAPA Kids, I learned the importance of connections, not only with younger children, but also with my peers and fellow teachers. I also developed a greater appreciation for my own teachers, and a gratefulness for my students who have a constant drive to learn. The commitment of all members of YAPA Kids is frankly incredible, and I am proud to work with them all in such a great organization. It also helped develop my values, which now rest heavily on the importance of education in this world.

Gautum Bhooma

President

Why do you like helping out YAPA Kids?
I’ve always been very interested in community involvement and bettering the education that people receive. There has always been a strong emphasis on education for everyone specifically girls in my family for a long time. So ever since I was young I knew it was vital that everyone received a good education and interacting with students is something that I really enjoy because in the end I end up learning from the students as well.

What have you learned from teaching at YAPA Kids or otherwise contributing to the organization?
From being at YAPA Kids a point that I have learned time and time again is that fun or interactive education is the most useful education. Often kids can’t handle being bombarded with facts which is something that happens in the program I teach in, history. But making the lesson relevant to their lives and the modern day while also playing games like trivia really helps people retain information, including myself. This lesson has been salient in how I explain or teach things not just to children but adults.

Shazia Shameerullah

Director of Opeartions

Why do you like helping out YAPA Kids?
I enjoy helping out at YAPA because the amount of people I get to connect with, and the passion that every person I encounter has to improve the organization.

What have you learned from teaching at YAPA Kids or otherwise contributing to the organization?
I have learned the importance of thinking outside the box and adapting. Through the classes I have taught, I realized that every student thinks differently; therefore, by including different learning styles into my lesson plans, I have been able to think creatively.

Ann Mary Thomas

Director of Operations

Why do you like helping out YAPA Kids?
"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” —Malcolm X
I want to be apart of YAPA KIDS's goal towards a brighter future in order to make a real difference in children's lives. YAPA takes the task of developing young people into kind, thoughtful and contributing adults very seriously. I am very grateful to be apart of this goal.

What have you learned from teaching at YAPA Kids or otherwise contributing to the organization?
The biggest takeaway I've gotten from teaching at YAPA Kids is that change is crucial. The education system gets naturally exhausted from the same old things and so do kids. The old version is never acceptable for long, both in teaching and building a community. If a system is not renewed frequently, it will be beaten by time. This is a large part of my job at YAPA, to make sure that everything stays "fresh."

Denitsa Zvetkova

Director of Human Resources

Why do you like helping out YAPA Kids?
I started YAPA as a teacher just a few months ago, my favorite part would definitely working with the younger kids. Debating about ice cream flavors or cartoon characters with them was probably one of my favorite times of the week.

What have you learned from teaching at YAPA Kids or otherwise contributing to the organization?
Teaching at YAPA Kids has shown me how important it is to make learning personal and fun for kids. Getting to know each student's way of learning has taught me how to create a friendly and exciting learning space.

Hamsika Nittala

Director of Student Growth

Meet Our Executive Team

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