Our Team 團隊
Director, Founder of GEM Education
Rosa has over 15 years of experience in the field of education in Hong Kong, and is a qualified and registered kindergarten teacher with a PGDE from the University of Hong Kong majoring in Secondary English. She has a diversified cultural background, as she first obtained her undergraduate degree at University of Toronto, then pursued her LLM at Renmin University of China. After realising her passion for working with children, Rosa redirected her education trajectory in Hong Kong and has completed MSocSc in Educational Psychology in Hong Kong.
Her education abroad shed light on the contrasts in education approaches between Hong Kong and the West, which is a driving force behind opening GEM Education – to use a strength-based approach to enhance learning. Rosa believes that EVERY CHILD IS A GEM, YOU NEVER KNOW HOW BRIGHT HE/SHE CAN SHINE. She set up GEM EDUCATION to provide the opportunity for every single child at her Centre to sparkle, with the help of a little polish.
Senior Native English Teacher
Ms Karen is a native English teacher from Canada. She obtained her Masters of Education from USA and she is also IB (International Baccalaureate) trained teacher. She taught in the York Region District School Board in Toronto before moving to Hong Kong. After moved back to Hong Kong 10 years ago, she has been teaching at International schools, with her last full-time classroom PYP teacher experience being at The English Schools Foundation. She has over 20 years of teaching experience, and she is familiar with working with both gifted and special needs children.
Early Childhood Educator / Native English Teacher
Ms. Joyce grew up in the ESF system for both primary and secondary school, after that she graduated with a degree in Early Childhood Education from Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a qualified kindergarten teacher as well as a qualified childcare worker. She has more than 4 years of teaching experience in international schools and centres that provide services for SEN children.
She has taught at a prestigious playgroup in Hong Kong as well as done private teaching to families before joining GEM Education. Joyce is also a business founder that provides learning materials for children through the foundations of ‘learning through play’, therefore she has great insight on children’s development and knowledge in the education sector. She believes that every child deserves a right to education and a chance to succeed no matter who they are and what they need. Her experiences has inspired her to further pursue her passion by working with children and spreading her own experiences and knowledge by leading interview skills classes.
Native English Speaker & Speech Instructor
Miss Charlotte is an annual Dean’s List honored graduate of the University of Washington in the United States and holds a Bachelor's Degree of Arts in Education, Sociology, and Speech and Hearing Sciences. During her bachelor's studies, she participated in several clinical observations and assisted licensed Speech-language Pathologists as an internship trainee. She was in charge of determining the best treatments for patients and developing therapy-based games for young patients. Currently, she is working toward her Master’s Degree in Speech-language Pathology at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Miss Charlotte obtained the Montessori Teaching and the Special Educational Needs certificates, which are accredited by the Continuing Professional Development in the United Kingdom. She has experience in teaching students from various traditional and international schools in Hong Kong and the United States. Her education philosophy follows the Montessori teaching method. She aims to create a positive, welcoming, and stimulating learning atmosphere for her students. She views students of all ages as independent individuals so they can discover their innate intellectualism
Native English Teacher
Ms Simran is a qualified kindergarten teacher who obtained her Early Childhood Education diploma from Yew Chung College. She has over 3 years of experience teaching young children with different backgrounds and individual needs. She particularly loves teaching young children because she feels meaningful and satisfied watching the children grow and helps them realize their potential along the way.
Native English Teacher
Mrs Peggy Hall is a fully qualified ESL Teacher graduating with a bachelor’s degree from King's College London in Human Sciences and a Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Cambridge Assessment English. She is an approachable, enthusiastic, practical hard-worker with over ten years’ solid experience within education. Her most recent teaching post was at a top international school in Hong Kong and before that she was a teacher and manager at the British Council. She has also previously taught at Baptist University in Hong Kong, teaching post DSE students. Peggy is a dedicated and highly experienced teacher who is dependable, takes the initiative and is passionate about seeing her students excel.
Native English Teacher
Ms Heidi holds a Post Graduate Teaching Diploma from University of Hong Kong; along with a double bachelor's degree of Psychology and Communication (Emphasis on Child Development) from University of California, Davis. She has more than 10 years’ hands-on teaching experience in both international schools and private schools.
She has been teaching since sophomore year of high school with San Francisco Peer Resources as a volunteer. She went to different elementary schools and middle schools to conduct presentations and to provide academic tutoring in after-school programs. Also, she volunteered in different local pre-schools and elementary schools as a classroom teacher in my college years. These volunteer experiences inspired her to become a responsible educator and a supportive mentor.
Emotional and Behavioural Therapist / Play Therapist
Vivienne Tong holds a M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Counseling Specialization, concentration in Child & Adolescent Treatment, Family Counseling, Trauma Therapy and Play Therapy, from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She has B.A. in Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA). With her experience working in a community school based counselor and therapist, she’s experienced to provide relevant play therapy, individual and family counseling, case management with diverse populations with different cultural backgrounds.
Vivienne provides counseling service to children, adolescent, parents, couples, and family with a wide range of psychological concern including children development, SEN, parenting, life challenges, relationship or family issues, traumatic experience, etc. Her expertise is Play Therapy, using games play, art, dance and movement to enlighten children and adolescent.
She’s currently a private practicing clinical counselor; providing school based psychological counseling service to students and parents; home training to children diagnosed with SEN and their parents.
Native English Teacher
Ms Jocelyn was graduated from ISF Academy and is currently serving in the ISF Academy Alumni Association. She got her bachelor degree of Art at the California Institute of the Arts in United States. Currently, she is pursuing her higher diploma in early childhood education.
To this day, she had 5 years of teaching experience with students from various local and international schools in Hong Kong and Canada, mainly focuses on kids’ language skills including public speaking, English and Mandarin communication skills. Besides language classes, Ms Jocelyn is passionate on teaching arts and crafts, dancing and photography.
English teacher
Angela Chan holds a Bachelor degree of Arts with Honours 1st class in BA from Birmingham City University UK and a Diplôme de Langue Française from AF Paris France; she has also studied Les Cours de Langue et Civilisation Françaises at l'université de Nancy II in France. She is excellent at cross-cultural communication since she has worked in Russia for 6 years and has been a worldwide traveller for business development.
In addition, Angela has been serving as a volunteer tutor for SEN ministry at TFC church since 2013 and had been a volunteered Saturdays reading mom at a Band-1 local primary school from 2008 to 2013. She believes that every student holds an innate sense of curiosity and creativity that, with the proper guidance, can be nurtured to set students on a learning journey that leads to lifelong success.
Centre Manager
Rachel is a full-time mother of 2 kids, and is very active in fostering and scaffolding their education, learning trajectories, and personal development. Rachel has been a proactive and committed member of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) at her children's school for the past seven years, in which time she has organised and volunteered at numerous events for the school community. Having worked closely with the principal, teachers, parents, and students, Rachel has encountered children of different abilities and has adopted a strengths-based approach towards empowering children.
Rachel is enthusiastic and committed to the GEM team, and is keen to apply her attentive and caring nature towards the centre's staff, parents, and students. Paralleling the Centre's mission, her goal is to help children strengthen their characters to enhance early childhood growth and to ignite a lifelong love of learning.
Nutritionist
Mellissa is a private-practice nutritionist, specialising in improving digestive and skin health, pre-natal and pregnancy nutrition and providing nutritional therapy.
Mellissa believes that health and beauty is from inside out, prevention is better than cure. Eating healthy and acquiring correct knowledge about food nutrition are essential to maintain our body free from diseases.
She was filmed in promotional videos and was invited as an event speaker for Vitasoy Calciplus, Elemental by Tridacna Beauty and GENE Skin Rejuvenation Centre. She was interviewed and conducted health talks for cosmedical beauty centres, insurance companies, Po Leung Kuk and multiple medias such as Apple Daily, Eat & Travel, Elle.com.hk, she.com, hk01, etc…