Our Team
At Gotham Scholars, we work as one team to support our scholars. From our advisory board to our teachers & mentor staff, every individual believes in bringing their individual energy and experience to supporting our scholars.
Our Directors
Sheila Patel
Founder, Executive Director
Leadership Teacher
Jenna Patel
Co-Director
Math Teaching Assistant
Mentor
Priti Patel
Co-Director
Fundraising
Our Teachers
Sara Boeck Batista
Our ELA Fellow, Sara Boeck Batista, is a veteran NY high school humanities teacher. She has over 13 years experience in developing interdisciplinary learning expeditions focused on literacy, cultural competency, and analysis. She has passion for modeling classroom strategies to create a culturally competent learning environment and creates space for her students to think critically through reading, writing and class discussion. She won the Klingenstein National Teacher of the Year award in 2019 and has the special super power of finding the perfect book for any student. Sara has inspired our students through books by Octavia Butler and non-fiction by Jon Ronson and has coached our first scholar to complete a Model UN Simulation.
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Sheila Sarkar
Our Math/STEM Teacher, Sheila Sarkar, has traversed various media, tech, and entrepreneurial roles in Silicon Valley and NYC. Her love for math and science inspired her to further her education over the last decade to teach the next generation of scientists and innovators. Having worked in the NYC Department of Education and CUNY in the capacities of teaching and research, Sheila works with students of all ages to develop their critical thinking and foundation skills for furthering their education in the sciences. She has developed a cutting edge Culinary Math curriculum for our scholars to learn fundamentals, business math, and the art and science of cooking.
Our Mentors
Yasmin Elnakib
Trisha Franz
Amit Gupta
Amy Zuckerman
Elizabeth Jois
Gabriella Demaggio
