Founder of Capstone

Ronald is the founder of Capstone. He received his MBA from University of Chicago and M.Eng from MIT after completing his BBA (Hons) in Canada. Ronald is an expert in elite US & UK admissions and is one of the only admissions experts in Asia to be interviewed by prominent media such as CNN, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal.

He is frequently invited to speak at top schools on a variety of admissions and critical thinking related subjects and has also received numerous requests to advise and work with various schools’ admissions counseling programs. Ronald continues to work with a handful of Capstone students each year to supervise their strategy and progress through boarding school and university applications. Over the years, his students have gained acceptances to nearly every top 10 US boarding school and university. Many of his UK-bound university students gained acceptances to Oxford and Cambridge (most often in Law and Economics).
 

Head of Capstone Beijing

David has loved teaching since the age of 13, when first asked to instruct younger students in a martial arts class. From then onward, he has been consistently active in education, teaching integrated mathematics, geography, and philosophy classes to Chicago public school students in UChicago’s Splash and BrightSpark programs, and chairing several Model United Nations committees for middle and high schoolers in MUNUC and UNA-USA Global Classrooms conferences.

Before coming to Capstone, David served as a Senior Analyst at Springhill Consulting Group, a boutique firm advising Fortune 100 clients in Healthcare, Tele-communications, and Aerospace sectors. However, in pursuit of more personally fulfilling work in education, David left to join Capstone in 2014. Since then, David has been highly involved in Capstone, teaching every class offered and actively seeking new ways to help Capstone families succeed.
 

Curriculum Lead for International English Skills

Megan’s community service activities as a college student centered around education. She served as a high school debate tournament judge and a campus admissions ambassador. During her semester abroad in Egypt, she had the opportunity to volunteer as an English teacher for Sudanese refugee students. These experiences inspired her to share her passion for language with others by pursuing a career in teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Before coming to Capstone, Megan worked as a teacher and tutor in Washington, DC; Phoenix, Arizona; New York, New York; and Shenzhen, China. While she was a master’s student at Columbia University, Megan taught Chinese high school students in a program designed to prepare them to attend US universities. This eventually led her to teach in China. At Capstone, she looks forward to helping students perfect and polish the language skills they need to succeed in the English-speaking classroom.
 

Instructor

Gabrielle is highly interested in using innovative teaching approaches highlighting the role and importance of culture in the classroom. She often takes a hands-on approach, through which she encourages her students to see the relationships between topics learned in the classroom and applications to daily life and the real world.

Prior to joining Capstone, Gabrielle taught English in Spain and worked with an educational non-profit in Liberia, guiding students through the university application process for American and European Universities. Under her guidance, students became more competitive and better informed applicants. She also worked at the college’s career development center, advising her peers on the best strategies for their job and internship searches such as interview preparation, cover letter and resume writing. At Capstone, she looks forward to helping her students improve their critical reading and writing abilities so they can become more creative and independent thinkers.
 

Instructor

Simon enjoys learning and teaching the art of language. Beyond an interest in English, Simon developed a scholarly focus in East and South Asian cultures and history in college and graduate school. Throughout his time at Yale and Harvard, he developed a wide array of language skills in many languages including Japanese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. This experience led Simon to explore the connections across different cultures. He has especially enjoyed discovering how people who speak different languages can best connect.

Simon taught in a variety of settings before coming to Capstone. In college, for instance, Simon taught digital mapping workshops to students looking to learn how to use satellite imaging in map making. He has also worked in education and research institutions in India and Nepal, where he developed materials for students to develop better cross-cultural understanding. Here, he applied his training in cross-cultural connection to help students learn valuable new skills

English Skills Instructor

Imick enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures. In university, she first developed a passion for community based organizations and international affairs. There, she founded a campus organization celebrating multiculturalism; inspired by this diverse peer group, her dream has since been to live and work abroad. At Capstone, she enjoys helping her students not only learn, but become model citizens of the world.

Prior to joining Capstone, Imick enjoyed a successful career in Primary Learning. After working in a K-12 environment, she pursued advanced training in teaching in a graduate level teaching certification program. This experience concluded with an apprenticeship in the ESOL department of an IB school. In addition to teaching Primary Education and ESOL courses, Imick has pursued other academic interests in Special Education and Library Services. Her curiosity continues to lead her to the frontier of education, as she constantly seeks ways to innovate in the classroom.