Serra, a rising senior at Castilleja School, founded Talkversity in the early COVID-19 pandemic with the hopes of meeting the needs of young ESL students and providing volunteer and leadership opportunities for teens, both in a manner that is accessible, inclusive, enriching, and fun. She is responsible for directing major decisions and managing the operations and resources of the organization. She recruits and works with each individual board member to best serve our students and volunteers. Serra, who grew up bilingual and has taken Spanish throughout middle and high school, is passionate about learning languages and bridging the language gap for those that need it the most. She appreciates and understands that with new languages comes new cultures and experiences. Aside from Talkversity, Serra is involved in scientific research, climate advocacy, soccer, and more. She is excited to continue sharing her passion and love for spreading knowledge and impacting lives through Talkversity.

Ikbal, a rising senior at Carlmont High School, is the Volunteer Services Coordinator at Talkversity. She is in charge of recruiting, interviewing, and managing volunteers. Through her tutoring experience at various services, including Talkversity, Ikbal strives to cultivate a comfortable online learning environment by mentoring each volunteer through one-on-one orientation sessions. As one of the founding members, Ikbal has helped expand Talkversity’s services through outreach and advertisement. With a passion for biomedical technology and a deep interest in medical research, Ikbal plans to pursue a career in STEM. In her free time, she enjoys experimenting with various art forms and plays several instruments including the piano, flute, guitar, violin, and qanun. On the weekends, she instructs a bilingual elementary school theater group. She aims to leave a positive impact on ESL students in our community, and continues to guide volunteers to further develop their communication and leadership skills. 

Audrey is a rising senior at Los Altos High School and the communications director at Talkversity. As a founding member, she has worked on the curriculum and currently handles correspondences with parents and students. She speaks English and Mandarin at home and took four years of Spanish at school. She’s the Arts and Cultures editor at her school newspaper, is part of the Public Forum debate team, and coaches middle school debate in her free time. Her hobbies include running the Instagram account for a book club at her school that reviews new book releases and practicing judo and taekwondo at a local dojang. From a young age, her passion has always been reading, and she hopes to share that through this program.

Annabelle is a rising junior at Pinewood School and is the recruitment director at Talkversity. She brings new students and tutors into the program and tutors a student herself. As a child, Annabelle spoke Spanish and English at home, but after losing Spanish in elementary school, has taken over ten years of Spanish at school to relearn it. She writes for the Los Altos Town Crier as an editorial intern as well as for her school newspaper. Outside of journalism, she plays club volleyball and is involved in the health and science club at her school. In her free time, she enjoys painting, writing, and reading.

Kaitlyn is a rising junior at Carlmont High School and the digital media director at Talkversity. At Talkversity, she works on the website and the social media accounts. She speaks English and Chinese fluently and has been taking Spanish in school since seventh grade. Kaitlyn also enjoys music and has been playing flute since she was 9. In her free time, Kaitlyn likes to read, hang out with friends, or spend time with family.