BIO
I come from a traditional Venezuelan family with high moral and educational standards. Since my dad, an educator also, wanted us to learn native US English, I studied from kindergarten through high school in Kansas City, Kansas, USA. That's where my teaching experience begins, though informally. Since high school, I was always the one to help others in English, my best subject.
I have always been learning. I read the complete (yes, complete) World Book Encyclopedia from the age of 10 through 14. The Guinness Book of Records was another favorite. Since then, I have never stopped learning. During my teen years, I studied from French to World War II history. I was also heavily into computers. However, I was not the stereotype braniac or "nerd." I was a fun and very popular dude that went to all the parties. I truly developed my social side because beyond learning many subjects, I was also an MC (master of ceremonies), point guard on the basketball team, running back on the football team, hip-hop break-dancer and I was the lead singer of my high school rock band. I even joined a hip-hop dance group from a local TV station in which I danced on many TV shows and even in a movie called The Halley Generation. I believe in intellectual and social balance.
Out of high school, I took a pre-college year gap year to study photography and Jungian/analytical psychology. Soon after, my parents decided it was time to return to Venezuela. As the youngest son, I assumed the duty of accompanying my parents back to the homeland. At this time, I started studying Spanish intensely. Once back, I took many equivalency exams to be a Venezuelan high school graduate. I joined Magique, a local DJ service and sound company at the time as their MC and showman.
Being in the music industry led me to take up an entertainment industry job in a record company called Sonorodven as Label Manager. My job was to make records and represent the company internationally. I worked in many hit album compilations and helped in the production of various international artists. I was also a company representative at the world's most important music convention: the Cannes Music Festival in Cannes, France. I was actually the youngest record executive there. At about this time, I began to tutor other executives in English, on the side. I also began many study courses in everything from time-management to marketing strategies.
Work and study was impossible, so I departed from the record label and dedicated fully to studying law as my general-knowledge and Spanish-enhancing base major. At this time, I also delved into small business, from marketing bathing suits to ties. I later began a diploma program in computer architecture and started making computers with a friend on weekends. At this time, demand for me as an MC and English tutor grew. As soon as I finished law school, I studied broadcasting and obtained my certification as an official broadcaster. My next step was to perfect and certify my other skill: teaching.
I took a gap year to work, teach English and skate around the world. I traveled solo through dozens of cities across the US and Southeast Asia. I spent nearly a year in the US where I participated in many seminars and short-courses on education, counseling and the English language. After skating most major US cities, I crossed over to Taiwan. While there, I taught in various Taiwanese English institutes and began working n college counseling. This is when I fully realized my talent for teaching and consulting, because I had the opportunity to compare my abilities with other teachers. In my classes and courses, students were smiling all the time. I also did some TV commercials there, both as actor and voice-over artist. On my way back to Caracas, I stopped by Miami where a friend that was starting a fish business invited me to join him with work and capital. I did all the office and public relations for the fish business, which was another wonderful experience.
Back in Venezuela after that very eye-opening experience, I decided to dedicate my life to education. I began coaching high-level executives for symposiums and conferences, teaching English at the corporate level, and helping post-graduate candidates. Soon an offer came to me from the Liceo Los Arcos, an elite Venezuelan bilingual school. I became Family Affairs Coordinator and teacher, where my student base for private tutoring and college counseling expanded incredibly. During this period I began the Trinity College London TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification procedures. I took the exam at the teacher level a year later and I got the highest score in all Latin America, 95 over 100. Around this time, my sound company Magique had gone into the nightclub business and I joined in as public relations manager.
Some time later, I met a fantastic and life-changing family that provided me with an inspiring college applicant. From then on, I dedicated solely to being the best educational consultant and college counselor I could be, including obtaining a professional US certification as a college counselor, making me the first Venezuelan, and probably the only one, to do so.
Since then, I've achieved many things in education, such as creating English summer camps, creating a successful general knowledge high-school program in English called KBM (Knowledge is the Best Merchandise), becoming a certified TOEFL Test Center Administrator and official TOEFL representative, co-producing a general knowledge radio show called Curious World for radio station Jazz 95.5, becoming the high school counselor of the Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik school, and becoming a college professor at the school of social communications of the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello.
Today, I feel fulfilled and proud, having a fantastic and very select group of college applicants. So far, I have gotten all my undergraduate, transfer and graduate students into the major academies, colleges and universities of the United States, the UK, Spain, Italy, Canada, France and Germany such as Brown University, Central Saint Martins, University of Chicago, Sciences Po, Cornell, Istituto Marangoni, University of Pennsylvania, Technische Universität München, Harvard University, McGill, Parsons, MIT, Princeton, Emory, Columbia, Georgia Tech, Duke, Stanford, and many others.
Parallel to my main activity, I am Editorial Director of JW Magazine, a US lifestyle magazine that covers everything from interior decorating to philosophy. I also practice photography occasionally for entertainment journalist Sara Kafrouni, I do voice-overs for TV commercials and institutional videos, and I have business interests in real estate, tourism, and fashion.
As you see, I'm an active and happy guy, giving my best to my applicants and students, trying to help them be integral and successful individuals. That is my mission; that is my life.
nelven@gmail.com