Meet the team

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Meet the team ·

Our mentors are here to help you reach your goals

Sy Kim

FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL

BA English Literature, University of MD - College Park
Phillips Exeter Academy

Sy got an early start in education when she was just in high school. As a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, she was sought out in Korea by students looking for SSAT tutoring and assistance with the prep school application process. She quickly fell in love with teaching and even more so with mentoring. 

She is an active member of the Bay Area Tutoring Summit (BATS), currently holding roles as Treasurer, BATS Scholars Mentor Manager, and BATS Scholars Mentor. 

  • When Sy moved to Korea in 2009, she began teaching test prep (SAT, ACT, SSAT, AP, TOEFL) and working with students on prep school and college applications full-time. She worked with students 1-1 as well as in classes of up to 40 students. She also developed curriculum for test prep and English classes up to the AP level. In addition to teaching and curriculum development, she worked as the Director at 2 different test prep and college counseling companies in Korea before eventually becoming a freelancer.

    In 2013, Sy moved back to the US and settled in the Bay Area where she was the Director of Operations for Tutorpedia before moving on to become the Director of Programs and eventually Executive Director Pro Tem at Aspire Education Project. She has collaborated with local schools, education companies, and nonprofits to create successful academic and test prep programs for Bay Area students. To supplement her administrative work, she continued to tutor, develop curricula, and do education consulting on the side.

    In the Fall of 2017, Sy returned to working full-time as an independent tutor and college/prep school consultant through her private practice, formerly known as Prep with Sy. She is currently based out of Henderson, NV.

Alex Kownatzki

PARTNER, HEAD OF ACADEMIC TUTORING

BS Environmental Economics and Policy (EEPS) + Minor in Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, UC - Berkeley

Since graduating from UC - Berkeley in 2016, Alex has been a professional tutor, working with students online and in-person. His specialties are math and SAT/ACT test prep, but he also tutors in AP US History, AP Language, AP Literature, and most core K-12 subjects. Much like Sy, Alex thrives in building relationships with the students and families he works with.

Sticking true to his nerd cred, Alex spends most of his time outside of work watching superhero movies, playing dungeons and dragons, and yelling at his favorite sports teams.

Alex was the first team member to join Sy when she was operating a private practice. He’s been integral to the growth of the organization and is taking on new leadership roles as a partner and Head of Academic Tutoring for LVL Prep. Alex is currently based out of Philadelphia.

Jesus Moran

Jesus graduated from Manual Arts High School in 2012 and was one of the first from his school to attend Harvard. As a first-generation college-bound student, his doubt and insecurities followed him from the dining hall to his classes. By the end of sophomore year, however, he started to gain confidence upon finding his community in various clubs, Eliot House, and the Harvard Ed Portal. He graduated in 2016 with a concentration in Government.

Jesus quickly transitioned from taking classes to teaching them as a founding member of the Harvard Teacher Fellows program, housed in the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For his primary residency, he chose to work at Leadership Public Schools, Richmond, where he taught high school social studies for four years, and served as a full-time college counselor for two.

In 2019, Jesus moved into independent College Counseling with the goal of focusing on college access and admissions for all students regardless of economic background. He collaborated with Sy on several students and projects over the years as mission-aligned colleagues and began formal work with LVL Prep (formerly Prep with Sy) students in 2022.

Daniel Stein

TUTOR (SPANISH, HUMANITIES)

MA TESOL, Adelphi University
BA Hispanic Studies, Wheaton College

Daniel has been helping others learn since the age of thirteen when he started tutoring younger students in his neighborhood and facilitating workshops in the broader Staten Island, NY community on issues of anti-racism and anti-oppression.

Inside and outside the classroom, Daniel is always ready to debate the salient political issues of the day. He regularly runs the hamster wheel of reading the books he continues to accumulate on topics such as history, law, anthropology, sociology, biomechanics, exercise, and human anatomy.

Daniel is based out of Mexico City and is available for tutoring in Spanish and Humanities.

  • While studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic in high school, seeing a different education system solidified Daniel’s desire to pursue education. When he went off to Wheaton College in Norton, MA on a Posse Foundation Scholarship, he began studying a wide range of subjects, and eventually settled on a Hispanic Studies major in order to be able to study abroad again, this time in Puebla, Mexico and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Soon after that, he began teaching in middle and high schools in New York City and eventually transitioned to teaching at the Community College level in Chicago, where he still teaches.

Mike Wright

TUTOR (SAT, LSAT)

JD Yale Law
BA Yale College

Mike graduated from Palo Alto High School in 2007 and spent his first year of college at UC San Diego. He then transferred to Yale College, where he studied philosophy and cognitive science. During his undergraduate years, he also studied abroad at Oxford University and took summer classes at Stanford University.

After college, Mike moved back home to teach a class for Blueprint LSAT Prep in San Francisco, and within a few months, he began taking LSAT and law school admissions counseling clients independently. He continued working one-on-one with clients throughout his time at Yale Law School, and by the time he graduated, he felt more drawn to the human impact he could have as a tutor than the work he would be doing as a lawyer.

Mike has spent years studying standardized tests to become an SAT and LSAT specialist. Through his work as a test prep tutor, he aims to address the dramatic inequality of opportunity created by the test prep and college counseling industry.

Amina Assal

TUTOR (STEM, TEST PREP) ASSOCIATE COLLEGE COUNSELOR

BS Computer Science, Columbia University

Amina graduated from Columbia Engineering with a degree in Computer Science. Getting an early start to tutoring as a student herself, Amina comes to LVL Prep with over five years of experience, and she has been tutoring full-time since graduating from college in 2022. She specializes in all levels of high school math (up to BC Calculus), Physics, and Computer Science, plus SAT/ACT test prep, teaching both 1-1 and in small groups. Through her work for companies in New York, Amina has also gained valuable curriculum development experience that has helped her gain fast expertise in standardized test preparation. Her methods of tailoring sessions to each student’s individual strengths and needs align perfectly with LVL Prep’s goals and pedagogy.

Amina is also joining LVL Prep as an Associate College Counselor. As a college prep coach, Amina guides students in researching universities and programs that are the right fit for them, crafting authentic admissions essays, and applying for scholarships. She is also able to provide valuable insight into the Ivy League experience and application review process for those aiming for top universities. She is proud to have helped students matriculate to schools like Yale, Columbia, UCLA, and Berkeley.

It’s time to reach your goals