Definition of a V.I.P.: "A V.I.P. is someone that follows his/her dreams and does everything they can to make those dreams a reality."
ZHALISA CLARKE
Age: 29
Race: Jamaican, Panamanian & Filipino
Hometown: Washington,D.C.
Current city of residence: San Francisco, CA
Profession: Strategy Consultant
Educational background: BA, Harvard College; MBA, Harvard Business School
Zhalisa's Bio: Zhalisa grew up the child of immigrants, in a neighborhood in DC where the high school graduation rate was quite low. Because Zhalisa's parents valued education, they applied for scholarships so that she could attend private school. While there were very few minorities at her school, and she had much less in terms of financial resources than her classmates, she worked really hard in all of her classes because she knew that education was going to be the key to her success.
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Definition of a V.I.P.: "One who takes their passions and abilities seriously and utilizes his/her talents at the service for the struggle of freedom and justice."
ELICE HENNESSEE
Age: 25
Race: African American
Hometown: Inglewood, CA
Current city of residence: Los Angeles, CA
Profession: Educator/Consultant/Entrepreneur
Educational background: UCLA graduate
Personal website: funkadelicsquared.blogspot.com
Élice's bio: Élice Hennessee was raised in Inglewood, California, and like many growing up in the inner-city, she faced various socio-economic hardships. The Los Angeles, inner-city public school system did not necessarily prepare Élice for the goals she wished to achieve. But, at an early age, she decided to not let her circumstances affect her ability to achieve her goals so decided to take her future into her own hands and make fervent attempts at realizing her goals. After much effort, many long nights in public libraries and a mentor who gave much time and academic support, Élice was able to accomplish goals despite her circumstances.
Her entrepreneurial spirit coupled with her sensibilities toward inadequacies in the education system led her to start a business teaching, tutoring and mentoring students in order to help them reach their academic, personal and professional goals. She strongly believes that students should have far more support and academic assistance than she had, while in primary and secondary school. She has over 8 years of experience in the field of education and she has taught in both traditional and non-traditional classroom settings, developed curriculum, and taught students ages 5-53.
Élice’s company, Literary Pro’s, offers full tutorial and editing services including test prep, K-12 and college level one-on-one and group tutoring, writing development, ESL, proofreading and editing.
Élice Hennessee is also a writer. She has written for MTV, Starpulse.com and other various media sources and online and print publications.
She currently maintains a blog addressing a plethora of different interesting topics from politics to relationships to art and culture. You can find her blog here: FunkadelicSquared.blogspot.com
To contact her for tutorial and/or editing services, please email her at: literarypros@gmail.com
Oh, and Élice also has a handsome and brilliant younger brother, Mouton Hennessee, whom she would like to mention - per HIS request.
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Definition of a V.I.P.: "A VIP can be anyone. But mainly, a VIP is anyone that is constantly bettering themselves and does whatever is necessary to succeed in their chosen space."
GALAX WOMACK
Age: 32
Race: African American
Hometown: Palmdale, CA
Current City of Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Profession: Web Developer
Educational background: Associates degree Electronics ITT
Galax's bio: For Galax, growing up in Palmdale, CA in the 90’s was a bit rough. His parents moved his family to what was then the nicer part of town. The problem was that there were not many people of color there. Galax guesses that his parents thought it better that he grew up in a white neighborhood than a black one. This meant growing up hearing racial slurs or jokes at least once a day till he was in the 8th grade. At that point Galax switched schools and finally got to be around his people. This was bitter sweet. He found that most of the other black kids at school had no real goals for themselves. Basically sports and doing dirt was the extent of their ambition. Of course growing up around white people means you are going to talk a bit more proper than the other black kids. That along with not being interested in sports and getting into dirt, didn’t make Galax many black friends. He had to reach 10th grade to finally feel accepted by his own. But by then, all he wanted to do was get out of Palmdale and never look back. Galax knew if he stayed there he would never reach his potential. I made the decision to go to ITT to get his electronics degree. He had been interested in electronics and computers all of his life so it seemed like the logical choice. After ITT Galax realized he hated electronics, but loved software. So he started teaching himself how to code. And now he makes a pretty good living as a Web Developer.
