Who We Are

CSESS brings undergraduates and secondary school students together to share a love for learning about non-traditional subjects. The CSESS teaching staff is composed of Harvard undergraduates; the Board of Directors includes Harvard alumni and community members. CSESS is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Massachusetts.

 

Board of Directors:

  • Elisabeth Cohen (Chair of the Board) is a humanities teacher at Booker T. Washington, a public middle school in Manhattan. A New York City Teaching Fellow, she received Bachelors and Masters degrees in Arabic and English literature from Harvard (2006), a PhD in Arabic Literature from Princeton (2012), and a Masters in Education from St. John's University (2014). Her work with CSESS has been profiled by Repair the World and The Jewish Week.
  • Matt Pasquini (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Keely Zaientz (Secretary) holds Master's Degrees from both Columbia University and the Hunter College School of Education. She has over ten years of experience in the New York City Public Schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools. She also has experience working with many different after-school programs, including Chess in the Schools, The Children's Aid Society, and Brienza, Inc.
  • Audrey Bennett graduated from Harvard in 2012 with a BA in History of Science. She first became involved in CSESS as a student-teacher.
  • Gregory Draves, CSESS's media guru, is a filmmaker with a degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Greg recently completed a Masters degree in Marketing and Computer Information Systems at Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business.
  • Kevin B. Martin, MD, holds a A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College, class of 1996, and an M.D. from the University of Rochester, class of 2000. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. He practices pulmonary medicine at Reliant Medical Group, and pulmonary / critical care medicine at Saint Vincent Hospital, both in Worcester, MA.
  • David Wu graduated from Harvard University in 2011 with a BA in Computer Science. He has also served as a teaching fellow for several undergraduate courses, receiving a certificate of distinction, and in 2011, first became involved with CSESS as a student-teacher. Currently, he works as a software developer for a proprietary trading firm in New York.
  • David Kotsonis (Webmaster) graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2011 with a BA in economics. He currently works a software developer in the field of educational technology in Arlington, Virginia.

 

Staff:

CSESS student-teachers are Harvard undergraduates who meet during the fall term to study pedagogical methods and prepare lessons to teach in teams of two. They then spend the winter term living in New York and teaching a diverse selection of middle and high school students in the New York metropolitan area. To learn more about participating in CSESS as a student-teacher, email contact@nyenrichment.org.