About Us

Tessa Levenstein is pumped to be teaching at Tin Can Learners this fall! Born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, Tessa decided to stay in the Happy Valley for college and is currently a rising junior at Amherst College. There, she studies Math and History. Tessa has worked as the Teen Life Advisor at Congregation B’nai Israel for nearly two years where she founded the two middle and high school youth groups. In her summers, Tessa teaches painting at the Deerfield Academy Summer Arts Camp and loves discussing art history and color theory. Tessa loves walking barefoot in mud and wants to get better at gardening and bird watching. Tessa wants you to know that math is really hard, but anyone can learn it with practice and the right teacher!

You can contact her at tessa@tincanlearners.org.

Michayla Robertson-Pine studies Theater and Education at Wesleyan University. She has worked with children in a variety of roles including camp counselor, teaching assistant, swimming instructor, and baby-sitter. She is committed to building curriculum that empowers children to explore and expand their creativity and indulge in their own unique ways of processing the world around them.  Michayla works to build a robust and exciting framework for learning that centers around self expression and community engagement. She believes that learning should be passionate! Whether it be theater, dance, writing, building LEGO forts, climbing trees, or investigating the stink bug that lives in the bathroom, whatever excites your child will have a place at Tin Can Learners!

You can contact her at michayla@tincanlearners.org.

Natalie Elliott is excited to be an instructor for Tin Can Learners. She is a rising junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN where she plans to major in Earth and Environmental Science with a minor in Computer Science. Even though she lives far away from Amherst during the school year, Natalie feels a special connection with the Valley and is excited to be able to guide children in exploring subjects she is passionate about. Natalie has spent the last three years working with the local children as a summer camp counselor at the Hitchcock Center, teaching swim lessons for LSSE, and volunteering with Multi Arts Children's Camp. She also spent the last semester teaching students in the Nashville public schools the basics of coding through animation. Outside of spending time with students, she'll likely be found at a newly discovered Western Mass swimming hole, trying to form a band with limited musical training (PLEASE let her know if interested, she's got the bass covered), or drawing all the individual rooms of her dream house. Just be careful, if you ask her about bats she will spend at least 10 minutes discussing all the fun facts about her favorite animal she's collected over the years.

You can contact her at natalie@tincanlearners.org.

Liz Woolford is thrilled to be teaching with Tin Can Learners! She is a rising senior at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT where she is studying Government, Theater, and Environmental Studies. Liz has spent many summers working as a camp counselor, and has taught at both Camp Arena Stage (D.C.) and Potomac Overlook Regional Park (VA). On campus she works for the Wesleyan Office of Sustainability managing a 15-person team of peer environmental educators. She has worked on Capital Hill with the National Parks Conservation Association and recently conducted forestry research with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Liz is an active theater-maker, and you might spy her climbing a tree while working on a collaborative performance project, or volunteering at Oddfellows Youth Playhouse (CT). She is currently working on OneManyNo Such Place, a a creative investigation of our living spaces. She is a lover of whales, podcasts, and blustery days. She would very much like to reside in a tree house, but….oh well.

You can contact her at liz@tincanlearners.org.

Rafael DePillis studies biochemistry and computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Honors College. Rafael has more than three years of academic research experience in biochemistry, entomology, botany, and molecular simulations. Scientific research has taught him that he has a passion for learning and is looks forward to sharing that passion with his students. Rafael has experience instructing graduate students in the fundamentals of computational modeling and is currently working as a certified EMT in Amherst. Rafael loves dogs, hiking, reading, and connecting with friends, new and old. He is stoked to teach fun project-based classes. (Even though he is an instructor, he doesn’t know any Tik Tok dances and may need some students to help him out at a “Teach Raf Tik Tok Dances” Friday Fun event).

You can contact him at rafael@tincanlearners.org.