Alessandro is a highly accomplished educator and designer. He hold a Master's of Education and he is PreK-12 certified Art teacher. He has also served as an Associate Professor at Raffles University, an Asian-based university specializing in Design. Alessandro is particularly passionate about the intersection of traditional and modern media and the role that education can play in bridging cultures.

Alessandro became an Associate Professor through extensive research and on-the-ground application of Multiple Intelligence combined with Project/Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Learning-by-Doing. He has also spent several years working in the e-Learning field and has developed smart platforms.

Alessandro has received numerous certifications for his expertise in design evaluation, project-based learning in the arts, and teaching critical thinking through art. He has been teaching art and design in China since 2004, and has held various leadership roles such as Program Director, Director, and Head of Department.

Alessandro's career overseas began in China as Programme Director of the Graphic Design and Interactive Media program at Raffles Design Institute, a Singaporean education corporation, attached to Changchun University. Ten years later, he moved to the China HQ in Dong Hua University in Shanghai. During his time at Raffles Education Corporation, he served as Director for International Relationship, Director of the Corporate Training project, and Founding Member of Raffles Academy.

Currently, he serves the Senior Leadership team as Deputy Head of Studios after having served for 4 years as Head of the Creative Arts & Design Department at Huitong School in Shenzhen, South China. In 2023, he was appointed as "Shenzhen Global Communications Ambassador" by Shenzhen Daily, the most important Media company in this global and international city and still carries this prestigious title.

Weiyi received both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, majoring in visual communication design. Her study and practices in art and design involve interdisciplinary techniques, mediums, forms, thoughts, etc. Taking advantage of such art making processes, she discusses issues concerned with culture and behavior, which inspires her with the belief that the social responsibility of an artist always has to do with education. Weiyi introduced her methodology in art and design to museum education, and developed public learning programs for the Sea World Culture and Arts Center. She successfully held a series of project-based learning events and experiences on the subject of local history for school kids and adults in collaboration with schools, artists, and scholars.

Having graduated from China Central Academy of Fine Arts and earned the Excellent Graduate Student Awards in Beijing, Yaan graduated and continued to study public art. During her studies, she went to the Netherlands and studied at Willem de Kooning Academy as an exchange student. She earned her master’s degree in arts in teaching and received a K-12 Visual Arts Professional Educator License in the state of Illinois. She has travelled to over 20 countries in Europe and North America and enjoyed every minute of it. She keeps an open mind to accepting different cultures and embraces having a reflective attitude while teaching to remain critical. Her students are exposed to landscape design, fiber art, digital art, sculpture, collage, painting, etc. She also combines writing with weaving to inspire students to express themselves.

Ms Erin Lee is a string player and a pianist. She has a bachelor’s degree in Viola performance and composition from the Conservatory of Music at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea. Erin is completing her master’s degree at Conservatory Brno in conducting. She taught at Korean International School in Shenzhen for 10 years. In addition to classroom teaching, Erin will be directing orchestras at Whittle. Erin is trilingual and speaks Chinese, Korean and English.

Wang Minyi obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Shanghai University of Sport, with a major in Physical Training, focused on badminton and basketball. After he graduated, he worked at Shanghai Pinghe School and RDFZ King’s College Hangzhou. At both Pinghe and RDFZ he taught a range of ages, from primary to high school, in Physical education classes. He was also head coach for both badminton and basketball. The RDFZ basketball team went from little knowledge of basketball to winning the HISAC tournament, Hangzhou’s largest competition. 

 

He has a wide range of interest in sports in which he holds certificates for. He also has IB teaching certification. His passion as a teacher is to help students to build up skills in sports as well as providing the tools to practice a healthy lifestyle.

Matthieu Le Noen was born In Nantes, France. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Fine Arts from L’Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts of Angers after studying History of Art at University of Nantes. A multi-disciplinary artist, he has strong technical skills in diverse media such as painting, photography, video editing and graphic design. Making, experimenting and teaching Art have always been part of his life. Matthieu has been teaching Art in China since 2014. He taught Art and Design to primary students in Hangzhou and also prepared high school students to enter the China Academy of Art. He arrived in Shenzhen in 2019 where he and his students have been awarded for one of his favourite elective classes : Recyling Art. His classes are designed to enhance creativity, whole-student learning and personal development. Matthieu speaks French, English, German and Chinese.

Judy Wang graduated from Central Saint Martins, awarded as a distinguished graduate for her master's degree. In 2014, she went to Kenya and gave art lesson with great passion for art education. In the same year, she set up a shadow puppet animation workshop at the British Museum, and led the team to convey the aesthetics and production of shadow puppet animation. In 2017, she went to Fukuoka, Japan to participate in an art residency program, exploring the possibility and diversity of animation images and co-organizing exhibitions with artists from all over the world. After that, she received the seed fund project of the UK government and executed her art project. Her artistic concept aims to focus on the connection and interaction of children's psychology and animation, she hopes to improve creativity and self-driving through contemporary art education.

Cheng Chen graduated from the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, majoring in Chinese painting. After seven years of professional learning, she has a solid foundation and academic background owing to her profound artistic accomplishments. She is a learner with a spirit for exploration. Her works have developed a new visual form beyond the traditional dimension, which has benefited from her global perspective. She studied at the Royal University College of Fine Arts and held an exhibition of Chinese paintings in the art museum. After traveling around the world, she felt the energy strongly contained in traditional Chinese art. She integrates the splendid traditions of this thousand-year ancient state into contemporary art education so that children can truly have a global perspective after absorbing local “nourishment.”

Miss Faye is an actor, director and drama tutor based in China and UK. She graduated with MA degree in Text and Performance at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and BA degree in Theatre Directing in Shanghai Theatre Academy in China, as one of the international students joined the summer theatre director training program at The Russian Institute of Theatre Arts in Russia and actor training from Evan Yionoulis at Yale University in USA.

 

Faye has more than 8 years working experience in Theatre industry, she believed that the drama tutor have to into the industry to soiled herself. She has tutored students have been admitted to well-known universities both in China and the Overseas with excellent scores, including Shanghai Theatre Academy, Beijing Film Academy, Gold Smith, RCSSD, UAL, University of Bologna, HKAPA, University of Pennsylvania.

Zimin Fan graduated from the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulon Provence Méditerranée in Toulon, France, specialising in piano performance, and obtained three Master's degrees in piano performance, chamber music and piano accompaniment in France. She studied with Ricardo Castro, the first prize of the Leeds International Piano Competition, at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne, Switzerland. During her studies in France, she performed in many concerts and festivals such as Les Nuits Pianistique d'Aix-en-Provence, Liszt en Provence, and as soloist or duo at the Opera de Marseille, Salle de Cortot in Paris and other concert halls.In Switzerland, she started her personal music teaching experience at the music school of the municipal hall and has been working as a music teacher and piano teacher at international schools in the country since then. Zimin enjoys her time with students of all ages and believes that every child can give back to society the beauty of music through music education.

Lena Fu entered the Xinghai Conservatory of Music with the first rank in her major. She received her Master of Arts degree in Orchestral Performance, specializing in Western percussion, and has a deep study of Western orchestral and jazz-oriented percussion. She has been invited to perform in special concerts at the EU West Coast Music Festival, Hong Kong Music Season, PAS-International Percussion Festival, etc. She worked as a percussion teacher at Xinghai Conservatory of Music, and was also an examiner for the Xinghai Conservatory Social Arts Examination.She has tutored students to achieve excellent results in provincial, municipal and national competitions. She has been awarded as an excellent instructor by IPEA.

Evgenii was born in Siberia, Russia. There he studied vocal, percussion and piano at Surgut Children’s Music School, and at Surgut Music College. During his school years he participated in many concerts as a singer and won prizes in vocal competitions. He received a bachelor degree in vocal and music drama theater performance at Maimonid Moscow State Classical Academy in 2017. Evgenii taught vocal in Private Music School in Moscow for 2 years, and then continued teaching in Fine Art, Shenzhen. In 2020-2022 Evgenii taught Music Drama classes in Bilingual International School, Shenzhen to primary school students. Evgenii has an experience in teaching vocal private, vocal ensemble and music drama classes to students from kindergarten through university. Evgenii’s students and ensembles won prizes at vocal competitions in Shenzhen. He also composes neo classical music. He released an album of his compositions in 2016. 

Rok Hozjan is a double bass, bass guitar and piano player from Slovenia. His music experience covers classical music, jazz, world music, pop music and rock music. In Europe, Rok is not only a music teacher, but also a well-known artist. As a double bassist he is a member of Quintet Piazzolleky Tango Quintet. He played in numerous bands and orchestras like Terrafolk, Kapobanda, SFK Symphony Orchestra, Mandolin orchestra of Ljubljana, Cantabile orchestra and collaborated with famous artists like Vlatko Stefanovski and Marko Hatlak amongst others. Rok is an active recording session bassist with his work featured in numerous albums, singles and major projects with many of which he toured the whole Europe and China.

 

Rok Hozjan has been teaching music since 2009 in European professional music schools and provides advanced music master courses for students aged 6-18. He graduated with a master's degree from the University of Ljubljana, the oldest and largest institution of higher learning in Slovenia. In the past decade, he has accumulated rich music teaching and management experience in Logatec Music School, Pionirski Dom Theatre, Montessori Academy in Ljubljana, RDFZ King College in Hangzhou and other schools.

John Huang graduated from Beijing Sports University with BA and MA. In 2020, he started his teaching career in Dongguan Tsinglan school. In 2021, he moved to Guangzhou ISA, both schools have very high levels of teaching standards for PE through diversified PE activities. This has helped him to form his own teaching philosophy of PE not being only for PE sake but for a life of fitness and enjoyment of sport. In his spare time John loves to travel and to try new sport.

Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Chris is passionate about sports and exercise. He graduated from Massey University in New Zealand with a Bachelor of Sports and Exercise Science. In addition to his degree, he holds a TEFL certification. Specializing in invasion sports, particularly rugby and basketball, Chris has extensive coaching experience. Chris's coaching career began in New Zealand, where he served as a professional basketball coach for five years. His experience spans community, club, and school coaching for ages 5 to 18. He also worked as an assistant coach in the New Zealand National Basketball League (NBL) for two years. Notably, he was the assistant coach for the Manawatu Jets in 2020, leading the team to the finals.

 

Chris then spent a year and six months in China, where he taught Physical Education at both the primary and high school levels. His time in China allowed him to adapt to diverse and dynamic environments, always prioritizing the well-being and development of his students. He looks forward to providing a comprehensive and engaging physical education program, helping students thrive in new environments and fostering a deeper appreciation for physical activity.

My name is Yaroslav Yakymuk, and I come from Kiev, Ukraine. As I progressed through my teenage years, my interest in sports blossomed into a genuine passion for basketball and football. This fervor for basketball eventually led me to pursue a professional career in the sport.

To further develop my skills and knowledge in the field, I obtained a Bachelor's degree in Physical Culture and Sports. In 2014, I commenced my teaching and coaching journey in my hometown. After two years of teaching in Ukraine, I embarked on a new adventure and relocated to China. Since then, I have been coaching basketball and instructing Physical Education in kindergartens.

In the past year, I had the privilege of leading the high school and middle school basketball teams at the esteemed "International School of Beijing." Additionally, I held the responsibility of overseeing the ASA (After-School Activities) curriculum.

I am excited to bring my expertise, passion, and international experience to my role as a Physical Education teacher. I am committed to fostering a love for sports, promoting holistic development, and nurturing a positive learning environment for all students.

Lavinia Duroseau was born in Brooklyn, New York. She spent a portion of her childhood in Montreal Canada. Lavinia received her Liberal Arts degree at the University of Hartford, followed by her Undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education at Pace University in New York. Lavinia started her teaching career in Brooklyn New York. She later moved to Florida and taught for 15 years prior to moving to Shenzhen China in 2018. Here she has worked as a 5th grade homeroom teacher, P.E teacher and Athletic Director. Lavinia Believes in the development of the whole child and learning through play.

Gisele Bianca de Sales grew up in São Paulo, Brazil.She graduated from Universidade do Vale do Paraíba with a Bachelor Degree in Physical Education.She then moved to Malaysia to develop and deliver Multi Sports Programs to multiple International Schools in Kuala Lumpur. Thatwas where she developed her passion to be a Curriculum Specialist.

Gisele then moved to Singapore and have been creative and leading Sports Programs, curriculums, Holiday Camps and Events for various International Schools for the past 4 years. Gisele trained coaches according to high standards and core values focusing on Fundamental Movement Skills, Martial arts, Swimming & Multi-Activity Camps.She pioneered the launch of fresh new programs for a new gym called Prodigy resulting in popular demand for themed holiday camps, play-and-learn sports programs, and sports-themed events, loved by kids and parents. During the pandemic, Gisele used her time to work on her Post Graduate Course at Unibf University of São Paulo to complete her Sports Science Higher Education Lectureship course. Gisele now moved to China where she is delight and excited to start this promising new chapter.

Danielle Hu earned her Master’s degree in Counselling from The University of Hong Kong. Over the past 15 years, she has supported numerous children and families in both state and international school settings. She served as a middle school form tutor for two years and a primary form tutor for seven years, accumulating extensive teaching and administrative experience. In August 2019, she became a counselling psychologist at a renowned IB school in Shenzhen, dedicated to providing psychological support and guidance to students. She also serves as a trainer and school visitor for the International Baccalaureate Organisation, having organised numerous workshops for teachers and parents on topics such as IB education, classroom management, and positive family education—fostering communication and collaboration among educators and families.

Danielle Hu specialises in supporting students aged 6 to 14 in areas such as personal development, emotional management, social skills, and communication. Through personalised counselling, she helps children identify their strengths and areas for growth, assisting them in setting realistic goals to promote holistic development. Her work focuses not only on academic progress but also on mental health and emotional growth, striving to create a safe and supportive learning environment for every student. Fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, she communicates effectively with students and families from diverse backgrounds, helping them adapt positively to school life.

Mason Wang holds a Master's degree in Psychology from New York University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychological and Behavioral Sciences from Zhejiang University. After graduation, he has worked in international schools in Mainland China and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the field of psychological education and counseling, where he has gained a deep understanding of the developmental psychology of students of all ages. He has a unique insight into the social-emotional learning curriculum system and believes that the purpose of psycho-education is to allow children to participate in society and feel the world with a healthy body and mind, and to interpret life with healthy values.

Swing Liu studied for her Bachelor’s in English at the China University of Political Science and Law and for her Master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. She worked as the College Counsellor at the Houde Academy in Shenzhen and founded the Shenzhen Career Development Association. She joins Whittle as our College Counsellor.