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Learn About Pleasanton!

About Us!

Our Pleasanton campus is spacious and new! We opened our doors to this site in August of 2021 and have been building our community ever since! Located within a business park, our school has a large gym and open space in the middle of the campus. Students engage in classes, coaching, and a quiet space to take a break in the smaller rooms. Although we do not have access to much outside space, our students love to play on the play structure we are constantly building and join our Walking Club for outside time. Students join us from surrounding areas and Pleasant Hill, Oakland, Castro Valley, Burlingame, Fremont, and Cambell.

What Makes Us Different?

Our campus opened as students began returning to school from the pandemic. The new community of students have been building our culture at school ever since. Almost all of our faculty have been on our campus since the day we opened our doors! Our parent community is very close and supportive.

Our students love to play together and with us. We often spend time creating new games, walking our fantasy animals around the campus, and engaging in role play games like Dungeons and Dragons. Our students love digital art, topography, anime, animals, robotics, and philosophical debates. We are very into watching scientific videos like Kurzgesagt, playing Minecraft, and all things large (buildings, volcanoes, mountains, vehicles, etc.). You can often find students riding scooters around campus, cheering on student-led musical concerts, or exploring our communities on our many field trips!

Jessica Garcia
‍Pleasanton Site Director

Jessica has worked in the field of accessible education for over 22 years. Since earning her undergraduate degree in elementary and special education, she taught special education classes (SDC, inclusion, and Non-Public School) for almost 10 years. Since that time, she has provided leadership as a special education program specialist or coordinator in Oakland USD, Mt. Diablo USD, and Benicia USD where she has focused on programs and support for students with social, emotional, and behavioral needs. She holds a special education credential, multiple subjects credential, administrative credential, and a Master’s Degree in Special Education. Jessica is originally from the East coast and has lived in the Bay Area for 20 years. She enjoys spending time with her husband and young children swimming, traveling, and playing outside.

Star (they/them)
‍Lead Teacher and Art Teacher

Star is a queer non-binary, parent, mapa, and fine arts sculpture artist.They graduated from California College of Arts, specializing in multiple art disciplines. Their practice as an educator is based on wellness and sustainability. As well as inspiring and creating artistic magic in multiple mediums, Star in their off time is a LGBTQ+ EMcee, and gender-bending performance artist.

Vivian (she/her)
‍Literacy Coach

Vivian is a first generation Vietnamese American and a new Bay Area resident from San Diego. She has a BA in Literature and Writing from CSU San Marcos, she loves all things Fantasy and Science Fiction. On her time off Vivian loves to travel, watch movies, hang out with her cats, and call her Mom for cooking tips! She is excited to create stories with the students of Big Minds!

Cove (he/him)
‍Science Teacher

Cove has a strong background in biology, graduating with a bachelor of science in Neurobiology, Physiology, & Behavior from University of California, Davis. He has also worked in the UC Davis Department of Biochemistry lab and is excited to conduct experiments at Big Minds! Cove designs his classes to inspire 2e students to use current scientific knowledge to expand their understanding of the world and to discover new knowledge!

Gavin (he/him)
‍Programming /Coding Coach

Gavin has a background in games, software, and education. Since finishing a degree in Computer Game Design from UC Santa Cruz in 2016, he has briefly worked professionally as a software engineer, as well as taught at a Bay Area private school for three years. Gavin loves to teach programming, and in his spare time can often be found playing Pickleball or any of a number of games on his Nintendo Switch.

Hannah (they/them)
‍Math Coach

Hannah has a long and varied history with a number of industries and considers herself a lifelong learner. Before shutdown Hannah worked in Learning and Development for a tech company in Palo Alto, but chose, in light of school closures, to quit and stay home to facilitate at home schooling for her two children. Hannah is excited to explore math at BMU with practical and hands-on methods, to help others understand and enjoy the fundamental way the world is put together.

Ryan (they/them)
‍Music Coach

Ryan has been working as a recording engineer, live sound technician and musician for the past decade. They believe that everyone is able to have a unique relationship to art and music, and as long as a person is given the right environment to grow and learn, there is no limit to the ways that they can express themselves.

Sam (he/him)
‍History Teacher

Sam Halterman was an English teacher in Russia for 2 years before heading to law school and becoming, first a litigator, and then a Trusts and Estates Lawyer. He practiced in Philadelphia from 2014 to 2020 before moving to California and returning to teaching. He loves history and comparative politics. He used to love Russian literature but is taking an extended hiatus from 600 page novels.

Emily (she/her)
Academic Coach

Emily is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in Humanities, and has a great passion for all things literature and art, and feels that education is the most important job in the world. In her free time, Emily loves knitting, reading, and spending time in nature with friends. She is excited to find out what our 2e kids are passionate about and explore those things with them!

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