Sculpted Minds is a boutique online studio for students in grades 4–12. We offer tutoring, test preparation, and independent-study modules across a focused set of subjects. Drawing on 20,000 hours of teaching experience and the well-worn strategies of our practice, we work to close learning gaps and cultivate robust domain knowledge: that which a student can summon on demand, apply reliably and accurately, and use to make sense of new situations.

Summer 2009: a seventh grader would visit his friend Aditya each week for math club. The twelve- and thirteen-year-olds were the club's founders and sole members. Together they would pore over the Art of Problem Solving Geometry book. When a proof looked stubborn, the boys sought out Aditya's mother, Neela. A former schoolteacher, Neela soon found herself organizing geometry "races," challenging the boys to solve every problem in the book.

Watching his child’s progress, his father suggested a formal tutoring arrangement. Soon the student brought his brother. And the brother brought his friends. And Sculpted Minds was born.

Neela Ranganathan

Founder and Tutor: math, admissions essays, test prep, other

Background: Ed.M. in Learning Design, Harvard Graduate School of Education; B.A. in Chemistry, University at Buffalo; Alumna, PROMYS for Teachers—’25 July

Teaching Experience: veteran homeschooler, former schoolteacher

  • Neela earned a Master's in Education from Harvard, where her coursework focused on learning design, negotiation skills, and proof techniques; and an undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University at Buffalo, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is also an alumna of PROMYS for Teachers, a number-theory program at Boston University that fosters mathematical habits of mind.

    Neela has spent more than 20,000 hours teaching. After leaving classroom teaching to resume homeschooling her child, she was approached by former students who asked her to keep working with them. Since 2009, Neela has worked with more than 150 K–12 students from a range of educational and familial backgrounds.

    Neela predicates her lessons on an ongoing, watchful reading of what her students know and where their learning gaps, both overt and hidden, lie. She draws from a stock of well-worn strategies and resources to repair fractured learning within the warm and safe precincts of her online studio. Students who come for a semester often linger for years, sometimes for over a decade. And several students stay in touch well after lessons formally end, to talk through an idea or work problems together.

Aditya Ranganathan

Tutor: AP and College Physics, test prep, admissions essays

Background: Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Harvard University; B.A. in Physics, UC Berkeley; Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley; CTO, Avix Medical

Teaching Experience: Course Head: Sense, Sensibility & Science (Berkeley)

  • Aditya exhorts his students to desist from solving a problem until its terms are clearly laid out. Rather than dive right in, the student first identifies the problem's basic components, then—often with the aid of clear diagrams—builds a structured plan from first principles.

    Aditya's commitment to education took root when, as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, he served as the youngest course head for Sense, Sensibility & Science (SSS), the interdisciplinary course on reasoning and decision-making pioneered by Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter. After receiving his undergraduate degree in physics from UC Berkeley (highest distinction in general scholarship), Aditya introduced the SSS program to Harvard, UC Irvine, and the University of Chicago.

    As a doctoral student in applied physics at Harvard, Aditya taught mathematical modeling and data science. A postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley building AI tools to enhance human reasoning, he also serves as Chief Technology Officer at Avix Medical, Inc., which recently won the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Global Startup Competition. At Avix, Aditya leads the development of Catalina, a handheld device for real-time, non-invasive breast lesion characterization. In developing technology to improve early cancer detection and clinical decision-making, he practices the same insistence on modeling and judgment that he brings to his students at Sculpted Minds.

Natalie Millan

Head Illustrator, Tutor: digital art and calligraphy

Background: Classical Studio Emphasis (Figure & Landscape); Narrative Architecture & Digital Media

Output: Comprehensive Design of the Sculpted Minds Identity; artwork for “The Definition” by Jon Bellion

  • Nat is a Southern California–based illustrator whose work draws on years of practice and formal training in still life, landscape, and figure drawing. She is the author of the suite of illustrations throughout the site, which carry a vision of education as something beautiful rather than dull.

    Nat conceptualized the Sculpted Minds environment in close collaboration with Neela. Together they sought a digital space rooted in thoughtful design with a touch of whimsy, where the visual interface reflects the same order and coherence we look for in our students' work. Beyond the digital studio, she continues to design and illustrate for Sculpted Minds' future offerings, making the materials we provide as precise as they are distinctive.

    Nat teaches digital art in Procreate. With a focus on both structure and creative development, she enjoys watching her students’ skills sharpen and their vision emerge.

The work begins with a diagnostic—a problem set, a written test, or an earnest conversation—to identify a starting point. Thereafter, instruction proceeds, with further assessments woven in between lessons. The student works and the teacher keeps watch, helping to repair any gaps the lessons bring to light.

Whether students come to us for help with schoolwork or to pursue independent study, we favor a principled and structured approach. Where relevant, we focus on building predecessor and precursor skills while addressing conceptual gaps. The learning strategies we employ—explicit instruction, retrieval practice, worked examples, interleaving, spacing, and precise formative feedback—rank among the most consistently supported in the science of learning.

Our craft would be incomplete without the tact and judgment of teaching: gauging the volume of new material to introduce, pacing retrievals, and calibrating feedback to fit the student and the task. The work is generally slow; the gains, incremental. But we have noticed that for those who persist, the rewards are rich as old feelings of dread yield to the quiet confidence of proficiency and mastery.

To read our more detailed essay, click on the pot to your right.

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