Our Tutors
Vali
(In Person - (Bernal Heights, SF) or Zoom Tutoring)
Vali Govier has been tutoring math for just under 15 years, specifically for girls from 3rd Grade to 8th Grade. Her background includes a degree in Computer Science from England and a lifelong love of math.
Vali offers both private in-person lessons in her Bernal Heights home and also private zoom lessons. She believes that building a solid foundation of math skills and number sense at a young age helps girls engage with and stay open to learning math throughout their lifetimes. She creates a fun learning environment filled with logic puzzles, math and logic games, worksheets and a positive math learning environment.
Vali has taught over 1000 girls from 30 different schools in San Francisco and beyond.
Vali moved to San Francisco over 30 years ago from England and soon after decided to take a year off to travel around the world with her husband. After swimming in Victoria Falls (Africa), going on a camel trek in the Thar desert (India), and seeing the beautiful Uluru (Australia), Vali came back to San Francisco, her favorite place!
Vali lives in Bernal Heights with her husband. Their two daughters also support several girls with their math journeys through their work with Math4Girls. Vali loves the color orange, likes to crunch leaves in the fall and go on long walks with her loved ones.
Tia
(Zoom Tutoring)
Born and raised in San Francisco, Tia attended Presidio Middle and Lowell High Schools. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California where she majored in Biology and minored in Psychology. After working in biotech in the Bay Area for a couple of years, she realized her passion for education. Tia currently works as a math and science teacher at a one-to-one private school for grades 6-12. She designs and teaches STEM curriculums to students with learning differences and those who have lost interest in traditional schooling.
Tia is passionate about helping young girls build confidence in math and beyond. Having previously tutored college students in statistics and calculus, and with her own college level work, she understands just how vital it is to build a solid foundation in math early on. She has seen herself how high school and college math courses rely on and build upon that foundation.
Tia’s world doesn’t revolve around math and science alone. She plays on a soccer team in the city with her friends. She loves hiking and cooking and recently started painting.
Sashi
(Zoom Tutoring)
Sashi is currently a graduate student, pursuing a Master of Arts in Applied Child and Adolescent Psychology at the University of Washington. She also attended the University of Washington as an undergraduate student, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with honors. A major field of interest for her is educational psychology, which makes her a great fit for Math4Girls. Sashi is available to teach your girl(s) (Grades 3 to 7) in math on weekends and some weekday evenings too.
She is a visual learner/teacher and values understanding concepts over memorization. Most importantly, Sashi understands the psychology behind learning and knows that confidence is key in the process. In her perspective, practice is important too and will lead to excellence (not perfection). Prior to joining Math4Girls, Sashi was a Math Club mentor for 4 years. Sashi also tutors Spanish to students of all ages.
Rohini
(Zoom Tutoring)
Rohini Govier is a third-year student at the University of California Los Angeles majoring in Applied Linguistics and minoring in Ethnomusicology. She is on the speech pathology track due to her passion for helping those with communication difficulties in finding the power of their voices.
Rohini’s current academic and career interests blossomed due to her background in math, language, and music. She is a life-long lover of math (her favorite topic being trigonometric functions), and has helped with Math Clubs for over 6 years. She speaks Spanish and French fluently and was a singer for the San Francisco Girls Chorus for 11 years. Rohini is an audio-visual learner and values dedication, diligence, precision, and resilience.
Rohini celebrates the diversity of learning paths and therefore tailors her teaching methods to match the needs of each student. From her experience as a French tutor, math tutor, and a mentor/music-theory teacher for young choristers, she has helped a wide variety of students navigate through their respective challenges. Rohini loves building connections with her students and inspiring them to reach their fullest potential.
Ella
(Zoom Tutoring)
Ella Fenstermaker graduated from the University of California, Davis with a bachelor's degree in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. She is currently working as a medical assistant at an ophthalmology office before applying to PA school.
Throughout her first two years of college, she has taken numerous math courses including calculus and statistics, and knows firsthand the struggles that may come when trying to learn math. However, she believes that struggling is a part of learning and that anyone is capable of understanding difficult math concepts if they continue to work at it. Ella values any and all questions, as she thinks they help highlight the challenges an individual faces and they guide the most appropriate teaching method.
Ella views everyone’s learning process as unique, and she values incorporating various techniques and explanations into her teaching to make the experience more personalized and effective. She has always loved working with children of all ages, and has been a part of Math4Girls for over 3 years!