Vanessa grew up in Brazil and moved near Philadelphia to earn a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from Bryn Mawr College, an elite all-women’s liberal arts school whose alumni and faculty include U.S. presidents, Nobel Peace Prize winners, and the first woman president of Harvard. Since graduating from college magna cum laude, she has helped students gain admission into university both as co-director of an admissions program in her home country, and as an advisor at Five Summers. Her students have attended schools like Georgetown, Washington University in St. Louis, Johns Hopkins, USC, UC Berkeley, and many more. In her free time, Vanessa enjoys travelling, dancing, reading mystery books, and biking along the seawall.

Alice Cao is an interdisciplinary artist, illustrator and educator from Vancouver, Canada. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Bachelor of Education in Visual Arts from UBC. Her teaching practice focuses on cultivating creativity and imagination in students, material explorations, and cross-curricular connection. Her curriculum design has earned her the Leon Tuey Scholarship in Art Education from UBC, which recognizes lesson plans that are well crafted, engaging, and culturally/conceptually relevant. In addition to her teaching and art practice, Alice’s writing and poetry have been well loved by her professors at Brown university and UBC. Having been accepted by multiple art universities, including RISD, Parsons, SVA and SAIC, Alice understands what makes a strong applicant. She uses her experience to guide her students through portfolio development, essay writing and interview preparation, helping them get into their dream schools.

Outside of her teaching and creative practices, Alice is a serious bookworm and a nature lover who enjoys walking by the beach or in the forest, where she feels the most relaxed and inspired.

Upon graduating from top elite liberal arts college in Beijing, David moved to the States and pursued a MBA degree from the business school of Columbia University, in addition to a Master of Computer Science from the University of South Dakota. With extended finance and tech-finance experience in the US and China, David has worked for Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank (China). He has also worked as chief operating officer of Group Operation and Technology in Shanghai, and directing roles of big corporate groups such as Fortune Fountain Capital, Gainfull Capital Group, New ERA Information Technology Co and Sun Growth Securities in Hong Kong. David was also the founder of the Columbia Business School Beijing Alumni Club and served as its first Chairman for 6 years.  He assisted the leadership at Columbia Global Center in Beijing and also served as the school's Admission Ambassador responsible for conducting in-person interviews with the applicants to Columbia University. In pacific overseas group, he advised students and strategically helped them gain admission to top tier universities and ivy league graduate programs. David is a fun loving guy who enjoys traveling and scuba diving. He has been to over 50 countries and scuba dived in 6 out of the 7 seas except the Arctic.

Nuheen graduated from Harvard Kennedy School with a Master in Public Administration in International Development degree in 2020. He is currently working as an Economics Instructor, alongside running his economics education business and a non-profit in Bangladesh, his home country. After completing his B.A in Economics  (First Class, Valedictorian) and M.A in Economics from UBC, Nuheen spent six years in Bangladesh building his nonprofit and working as an Economics Lecturer. Over his ten years of teaching experience across US, Canada and Bangladesh including his TA’ships at UBC and Harvard College, Nuheen has mentored and advised numerous students in their college and graduate school application. Nuheen is a Yayasan Khazanah Asia Global Scholar and the winner of a USD 156,000 grant from Bangladesh University Grants Commission.

Patrick completed his Master’s studies in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, while receiving a distinction for his Master’s thesis on the Ethics of Revolutionary Warfare. He has experience working as an academic tutor at residential colleges at the University of Melbourne, and as a private tutor/mentor for high school students in both the UK and Australia. Alongside his love of academia and teaching, Patrick is a passionate musician. He writes and performs as an electronic artist, and composes music for film.A keen soccer player, Patrick was also awarded a blue for his participation in the Varsity soccer match against Oxford.

Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Evan studied English and Education at Stanford and Harvard Universities (BA 2006; MEd 2011). Evan’s passion for language and literature earned him admission to many top universities including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and UC Berkeley. He was awarded Stanford’s Intellectual Exploration Grant, which he used to conduct research abroad. During the interim between his undergraduate and graduate studies, Evan traveled and lived in Europe, Asia, and North America. He has taught high school English in the US and China. In the past few years, he has served as a college admissions coach. During his teaching and advising career, Evan has had the privilege of encountering many of today’s most exceptional and talented young minds, and he has helped them gain admission to their dream schools. He speaks fluent Chinese.

Peter completed a Bachelor of Arts First Class Honors in English with a Major in Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He then continued on to graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in the UK, where he completed an MPhil in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies and a PhD in English. Peter has taught in the English departments of both the University of Cambridge and Simon Fraser University, and the students he has worked with at Five Summers have gone on to study at Cambridge, Yale, Cornell, NYU Stern, Wharton, UC Berkeley, USC, the University of Chicago and other top institutions. Alongside teaching and advising at Five Summers, he also runs creative writing and contest workshops that have seen numerous students win recognition in international contests, such as the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the New York Times Student Contests. He has also helped students win national and international debate tournaments, and publish journals in Concord Review.

Born just outside of Vancouver in the small town of Mission, Peter spent his childhood years running around in the forests of northern British Columbia before finding his way back to Vancouver via the Okanagan. During his studies, Peter specializes in nineteenth-century British literature and politics, and in literary, critical and political theory and practice. When he isn't reading, writing or teaching, he can usually be found playing football (soccer) or hiking.

Michele is a dedicated teacher and coach who has taught English, creative writing, and tennis for many years. Michele earned her degree in English and Education from Columbia University. Michele has taught secondary school in New York City, where she also coached tennis and basketball. She was involved in a literacy program in Harlem, where she discussed life and literature with children, and worked to instill in them a love of learning. Upon returning to BC, Michele has been actively teaching, writing, and coaching. She has taught creative writing classes, and has fully realized the therapeutic benefits one receives from the simple act of writing. She is currently guiding students along their own educational paths, helping with standardized test preparation, and improving reading and writing skills. Michele still seems to find magic in words, and continues to share this discovery with her students. Michele has rich experience in college planning and advising. She is good at discovering students' interests and potentials, and has been a caring guide on the journey of many students to successfully get into their dream schools in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Alberto was born and raised in California, but moved to New York to complete his PhD at Cornell University, winning the prize for "Best Dissertation on Human Progress & Evolution of Civilization." Besides improving his research and writing skills, Alberto honed his teaching methodology as a teaching assistant and instructor at Cornell, where he taught for over five years. Alberto also mentored undergraduates campuswide. He then moved to Vancouver, where he has since advised high school students seeking entry into top-tier universities. His students have been admitted to and gone on to attend universities like Yale, Princeton, UC Berkeley, and NYU-Stern. At Five Summers he has helped students course plan; develop personally meaningful extracurricular activities; win recognition in contests like Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the Greater Vancouver Science Fair; and gain entry into notable summer programs such as UPenn-Wharton's Leadership in the Business World. In his spare time Alberto watches FC Barcelona soccer matches and listens to Bruce Springsteen.

Allison grew up in Philadelphia, where she stayed to attend the University of Pennsylvania for her B.A. She graduated magna cum laude from Penn with a major in English and a minor in Jewish Studies, and went on to receive her Master of Divinity, magna cum laude, from Duke University. Allison has lived and worked in Rome, Tunis, and Jerusalem as a programming coordinator and educator in the arts, refugee resettlement, religious life, adult education, and interfaith dialogue. Through her travels and degrees, she has studied French, German, Arabic, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, and Biblical Greek. Allison delights in teaching students of all ages to explore texts and to develop clear, thoughtful, and vibrant writing for academic, application, and professional settings.

Born in Ohio, Tom split his childhood between Michigan and Ecuador. He attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a BS in Cell & Molecular Biology, with a minor in Philosophy, and a Masters in Biomedical Engineering. He went on to work as a researcher in the biotech industry in Salt Lake City, and in a bioengineering lab at MIT. A reflective type, Tom still wanted to develop in how he interpreted the human story and what it means for how we live. To this end, he came to Vancouver for graduate studies in theology at Regent College, where he has led tutorials in the history of Christianity. He feels called to help people learn and thrive in wholesome and meaningful lives, and plans to pursue a PhD in Psychology. Tom speaks Spanish and reads Biblical Hebrew. He enjoys unusual discussions, strategy board games, and writing poetry.

Houman earned his master's degree in English literature from the University of Tehran in 2012. He started his PhD studies at the University of Waterloo in 2013, and studied the history and theory of rhetoric. In 2017, he was honoured to receive the University of Waterloo’s award for exceptional teaching by a graduate student. Upon completing his doctoral dissertation, Houman moved to Vancouver to put his education and teaching experience to use in the beautiful British Columbia. Houman specializes in quickly assessing students' strengths and providing specific guidance to them through the university planning and advising programs at Five Summers. Under his caring and detailed guidance, students have achieved excellence in their academics and been better prepared for university.