Meet the Team
Meet the team of students behind every workshop offered who are determined to revolutionize STEM education.
Our Executive Board
Allie Eisenberg is passionate about the mission of STEM Mindset and is excited to collaborate with other members of the organization to continue growing its community and program offerings. She is a third-year student at Columbia University, Barnard College where she is majoring in Computer Science. She graduated from the Glen Rock High School in 2022.
Allie participated in programs like the W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars Institute Accelerated Learning Academy at Princeton University, Artificial Intelligence and Technology Track. Additionally, she has completed the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program and attended the CURIE Academy at Cornell University. To build a better technical foundation, she completed the AP Computer Science course as an independent study through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and earned a certificate in Python through Coursera.
Helping others is one of Allie's life long goals and she hopes to continue to make a difference. ​Outside of academics, Allie loves to play tennis and travel.
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Allison Eisenberg
Founder and President
Andrew Eisenberg
Andrew Eisenberg has been an integral part of STEM Mindset for several years in various roles, including designing and teaching workshops. He has taken on increasing levels of responsibility at STEM Mindset, becoming a co-President. In his leadership role, he has built new partnerships for the organization and expanded it's reach to include the refugee youth communities. He also included new areas of focus, such as Financial Literacy and SAT preparation. Andrew developed his analytical skills and business acumen through a business analytics externship with HP Tech Ventures Corporate VC & Business Analytics, coupled with his internship at the Vilga Financial Planning and by taking extracurricular classes through John Hopkins CTY and New York University.
As the founder and president of his school's Investment Club, he has fostered a community of students interested in understanding financial markets and investment strategies. His leadership extends beyond the club; since his freshman year, Andrew has been a dedicated mentor in his school's mentorship program, helping younger students navigate academic and personal challenges.
Co-President
Alice Lisak
Alice Lisak is a third-year at Duke University. She graduated from Westfield High School, in Westfield New Jersey in 2022. She has taken accelerated courses in high school for all STEM academics and computer science AP courses. Alice is an avid participant in Girls Go Cyber and America CyberStart - national cybersecurity competitions. She is the founder and director of WHS's first Cybersecurity Club. Alice has developed and completed two artificial intelligence projects with the Inspirit AI program of Stanford University, developing her machine learning skills. Besides coding and teaching, Alice is a competitive dancer and enjoys reading, hiking, and skiing. Through STEM Mindset, Alice wishes to share her knowledge in computer science with kids through an inspiring and enjoyable environment.
Vice President
Bhavini Pandey
Executive Director of Outreach
Bhavini Pandey is interested in computer science, artificial intelligence, research, and data science. Bhavini is a part of many STEM organizations, such as Bit by Bit (where she is an ambassador), which help to bring more female representation in STEM fields. She has also worked on multiple artificial intelligence and coding projects, including a COVID-19 mortality rate predictor. In addition, Bhavini has taken many accelerated courses in the STEM field. She has attended as well as conducted coding workshops, and especially enjoys working with and teaching kids, which she has done through organizations such as STEMninjas and Bit by Bit. In her free time, Bhavini enjoys singing Indian Classical music as well as Choral music, painting, reading, coding, and playing the piano.
Haoran (Sara) Li
Executive Director of Technology
Sara Li became passionate in STEM since a very young age, emerging herself in a variety of STEM related fields. She has taken many accelerated courses. Among all, she especially enjoys learning computer science. Sara is also involved in many STEM related clubs: she is a member of her school's Science National Honor Society, Computer Science Club, and Biology Competition Club. Besides STEM, she also enjoys bridging the relationship between seniors and students in her community, leading 60+ members to do volunteering and fundraising events. During her free time, Sara likes to play piano, run, and read.
Our Directors
Pranavi Kamana
Director of Outreach
Pranavi Kamana has a strong passion for STEM and hopes to continue building on her knowledge of different topics and subjects. She immerses herself in advanced STEM courses and engages in multiple STEM related clubs and extracurriculars. Along with that she hopes to be able to get more underrepresented youth into STEM as the Director of Outreach. Some other interests of hers include: photography, politics/civic engagement, and traveling.
Shiloh Smith
Director of Mentorship
Shiloh Smith is from Nassau, the Bahamas. Shiloh is no stranger to volunteering as he regularly spends his time doing community service from teaching children at a local orphanage to helping to preserve native species at a wildlife conservation center. Shiloh was also the president and founder of the computer science club at his high school. Among one the first in the nation, the club provides an opportunity for students to learn and collaborate on programming projects. He has won first place in the countries' national Hackathon and he has also had the opportunity to present student-made programming projects to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas.
Tara Kamshad
Director of Technology
Tara Kamshad's passion for STEM began in middle school when she attended classes and workshops with The Coding Space. Since then, she has familiarized herself with various CS languages, such as CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and Java. She is also a Social Media Director for the Bit by Bit conference, and works with them to promote opportunities for girls interested in STEM. Besides coding, Tara is a competitive soccer player, and is passionate about coaching young children.
Abigail Reznikov
Program Coordinator
Abigail Reznikov has taken many accelerated courses, such as those in science and math, earning her membership in the National Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society. She organized the Interact club at her school. Interact is a fundraising club and this year, its focus has shifted to raising awareness for dementia. Abigail also has experience tutoring younger kids and has participated in Junior Virtual Volunteering for Valley Hospital during the recent pandemic. Aside from academics, Abigail is an avid volleyball player and swimmer. In her free time, Abigail enjoys playing soccer, tennis, and drawing.
Lea Smolyanskiy
Program Coordinator
Lea Smolyanskiy enjoys playing tennis and is also a competitive dancer. She volunteers for the Red Cross and participates in investment competitions. Lea also teaches math to elementary and middle school kids. She is passionate about helping kids achieve their goals and pursue their interests. Lea has the International Baccalaureate Diploma. She enjoys and competes in debate forums. Lea enjoys spending time with friends and family and traveling. Lea is very excited to be a part of the STEM Mindset team.
Alessia Jakoel
Graphic Designer
Alessia loves math and taught several math classes via zoom for a program based in Orlando. In addition to STEM, she is passionate about playing the piano and rock climbing. She has competed at a regional rock climbing competition in Philadelphia alongside her team members! Alessia also loves volunteering and helped plan and create a butterfly garden for the Interact club she is a part of.
Prabhas Kurapati
Director of Finance
Prabhas Kurapati is very interested in many STEM subjects, including computer science, machine learning, chemistry, and psychology. He regularly spends time giving back to his community through various STEM activities, including tutoring students in his local community in various STEM subjects and leading the development of various programming curricula as curriculum design lead at Robotics for All, another national 501(c)3 nonprofit aimed at bringing STEM education to marginalized communities. Prabhas has taken many accelerated programming courses. In his free time, Prabhas loves to play many different video games and listen to music.
Domenica Simbana
Director of Marketing
Domenica fell in love with programming after taking a Computer Science college course. Since then, she has pursued the STEM field by becoming the Vice President of Mu Alpha Theta, Historian of Science National Honor Society, and Historian of National Honor Society. She strives to encourage women and nonbinary people to participate in STEM by organizing a TechTogether hackathon for marginalized genders. In addition to STEM, she loves to dance and play the guitar. She finds music a very crucial part of her life since it allows her to express herself in various ways. Also, Domenica has a golden retriever named DJ, who she loves very much!
Nancy Yao
Director of Newsletter
Nancy Yao has a strong dedication to STEM topics and has immersed herself in advanced STEM classes since middle school, especially math and science-related coursework. She stays active in her community and feels strongly about helping her community however she can, especially when it comes to making sure STEM is accessible to as many people as possible. Nancy loves science, specifically biology and chemistry, and she also frequently helps other students with those classes after school. In her free time, she loves to play flute and tennis, listen to different genres of music, and read!
Our Workshop Leaders
Eliz So
Eliz So is interested in computer science, machine learning, application development and mathematics. Eliz is a member of Hong Kong’s Young IT Ambassador Award Student OC, a chief IT officer at Queer Youth Rises and an ambassador and a junior columnist of The Written Revolutions which raises awareness of different social issues. She has also worked with different projects, such as AR iOS applications, machine learning, mathematical modelling and helped out with creating her school’s newsletter website for students. She has also attended and conducted different programming workshops and lessons, in which she helps out teaching Python and Swift to her younger classmates. Other than STEM, Eliz is interested in photography, music, business and politics.
Mirabel Zou
Mirabel Zou is passionate about technology, the sciences, and maths. She’s an ambassador of the Power Unit Youth Organization and a promotions team member at STEM organization Innovire. In her free time, she loves to compete in business and technology-related competitions. She has won first place in the Innovation Challenge at Expand Youth Society, and third place in the spring Ideathon with Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs. She is the co-founder of Yougen, an app that connects small businesses to high school/post-secondary students, allowing them to help each other thrive during the pandemic. Yougen has earned approval from the public to be a part of the start-up, Social Impact Catalyst powered by RBC Future Launch, receiving a $2,000 honorarium to support the project development. She also has experience teaching both Chinese Mandarin, English, and math lessons to younger students in her community.
Our Debate Team
Eli Zislis participated in the Spellman CleanTech Competition where he designed an optimized method of producing voltage from aloe vera plants. For the past 6 years, Eli has debated under Bergen County Debate Club, where he reached the national stage in numerous tournaments. He has volunteered to teach students the art of debate to underprivileged kids. Outside of academics, Eli is an avid volleyball and soccer player. In his free time, he loves to argue, host campfires, and tinker with unused electronics.