Meet Our Team

Ishita Bakshi
Director
Ishita Bakshi is a rising senior at Douglas S. Freeman High School, where her favorite classes are Chemistry and Ethics, and this will be her second year as a Project Engage director! During the school year, she spends time baton twirling with Freeman's marching band and competes on the debate team. Over the summer...

Fisher Finck
Director
Fisher Finck is a rising senior at Goochland High School and is the treasurer of the Project Engage board. In his free time, he enjoys video games, hanging out with friends, and going to the beach! At school, he enjoys History classes the most! In the future, he would like to work on reversing climate change...

Mihir Pokhriyal
Director
Mihir Pokhriyal rising junior at Godwin High School and this is his first year as a Project Engage director! He enjoys studying sciences like Biology and Chemistry. Some fun facts are that he plays the trumpet in the school band and all-district band, and also like playing tennis and racket sports on the side. In the future...

Ally Phillips
Director
Ally Phillips is a junior at Maggie Walker Governor’s School, and she enjoys running track and cross country, reading, and spending time with her friends! Her favorite subjects are Math and Science, and her favorite class ever is Anatomy and Physiology. She would love to work as a scientific researcher, and hopes to earn a PhD...

Sastha Tripathi
Director
Sastha Tripathi is a rising junior at Douglas S. Freeman High School this is her first year as a Project Engage director! She enjoys hanging out with her friends, baking, and reading in her free time. She is so excited to meet all of the new students and is more than looking forward to creating fun classes for everyone...

Nived Sanjay
Director
Nived Sanjay is a rising senior at Maggie Walker's Governor School, and he's been a director of Project Engage for a little over a year now. His passions include playing jazz, cutting hair, and producing music. He hopes to pursue a degree in engineering after high school, , and am interning with the VCU Department of Engineering...

Nithya Ravula
Instructor
Nithya Ravula is a rising junior at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School. She has a strong passion for STEM, having done robotics since the 5th grade, and hopes to pursue a career in aerospace engineering. In her free time, Nithya has been doing Kuchipudi, a traditional Indian classical dance style...

McKinley (Kin) Dillon
Instructor
Kin is a rising senior at Maggie L Walker Governor's School, and is extremely excited to be able to work with Project Engage this summer! She loves teaching kids, especially anything in the arts. Kin has done theatre since third grade, and is thrilled to get to share this passion of hers with others...

Jonathan Bierly
Instructor
Jonathan is a senior at Maggie L Walker's Governor's School. He loves working with kids and is incredibly excited to teach this summer through Project Engage. Jonathan would love to pursue a career in either aerospace or nuclear engineering, having already participated in engineering competitions...

Katherine Hahn
Instructor
Katherine is a rising senior at Maggie L Walker's Governor's School, and is incredibly excited to return to the team at ProjectEngage! She loves to dance and make art whenever and wherever she can. This past year, Katherine also taught Spanish 1 to eighth graders at AJCES through her Topics in Conversation class...

Naadia Rashid
Instructor
Naadia Rashid is a junior at Maggie L Walker's Governor's School, and is so excited to be sharing her love for creative writing with others. Outside of school, Naadia volunteers as an EMT and at a hospital, teaches tennis lessons, and is passionate about reading...