Instructor Profiles

Jonah Xu is a high school junior from Louisville, Kentucky and teaches Anatomy and Physiology I. He firmly believes that helping others learn new topics is rewarding for all and that everyone should be able to learn more about their interests. He hopes that though Anatomy and Physiology I, others can understand and appreciate anatomy and physiology more. Jonah is a USABO semifinalist and a 3-time AIME qualifier. He has medaled in anatomy at numerous Science Olympiad tournaments, including MIT. He has also written exams for national-level Science Olympiad Invitationals. You can catch him outside biking or tinkering with Legos.

Email: jonah.x454@gmail.com

Grace Liu is a high school senior from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. She is an instructor for the Epidemiology course. She is highly passionate about biology and math, but believes that writing and communication skills are important for people in STEM fields too. She recently helped lead a free STEM summer camp at a local library and is excited to continue to inspire passion in science through Illumina Learning. She is also president of Science Club in school, and is a USABO semifinalist and AIME qualifier. For fun, Grace loves to read, bake, and watch anime.

Email: lyuhan@gmail.com

Instagram: @grace.liu_

Jinhee Won is a high school senior from Carmel, Indiana, and teaches the Biochemistry course. She is passionate about various fields in STEM and believes in giving everyone the opportunity to explore their interests and unlock their potential. She is a USABO semifinalist, AIME Qualifier, USAPhO semifinalist, and ISEF Finalist. She has done research in bioinformatics and cellular interactions. In her free time, she enjoys reading and drawing.

Email: jinheewon2003@gmail.com

Instagram: @_jinhee_w_

Vishal Surya is a high school freshman at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, Texas. He teaches Anatomy and Physiology II. Vishal loves biology, more specifically, developmental neuroscience, and believes that the lessons taught in Anatomy should be intuitive to help process information needed in the real world and in competitions. Vishal is heavily involved in Science Olympiad, winning numerous medals, and acting as a captain for his middle school team. He is also passionate for public forum debate. Outside of academics, you can catch him playing basketball, listening to music, or devouring Goldfish and fruit snacks.

Email: shalubeta0704@gmail.com

SydneyBlu Garcia-Yao is a high school sophomore from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She is teaching Ecology in the Competitive STEM course cluster. She is passionate about earth science and believes that curiosity and application of knowledge builds interest in STEM. She won first place in Water Quality and 3rd place in Geologic Mapping at the 2021 Science Olympiad National Tournament. SydneyBlu was also selected as one out of 8 students on the US National Team in the 2021 International Earth Science Olympiad in Russia and won the highest honors for their research project. Last summer, she was part of the Teen Research and Environmental Education (TREES) program under Dr. Field at Penn, where she conducted research on the correlation between microplastics and coral mortality.

Email: dcas9girl@gmail.com

Instagram: @mssydneyblu

Aashika Jagadeesh is a junior from Fair Lawn, New Jersey and the instructor for the Computer Science course. She is highly interested in technology and hopes to foster a community that allows students to master new skills. Aashika conducts AI Ethics and Human-Computer Interactions research at the NJIT Social Interaction Lab. She first-authored a paper on Bayesian choice modeling and degenerate feedback loops. Her work has been accepted to the Harvard Science Research Conference and the International Youth Research Summit. She is also a USABO semifinalist, an NCWIT awardee, and the director of the non-profit organization MakerSafe. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis and baking.

Email: aashika.jagadeesh@gmail.com

Instagram: @aashikajaggy