MEET OUR TEAM
SARAH FATHIMA MOHAMMED
Co-Founder & Co-President
Sarah Mohammed is a fifteen-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area. She loves the Classics because she believes this study continues to teach her more about herself and the world around her—through powerful, important foundational stories around the topics of money, war, philosophy, and love, the Classics has helped her understand the themes that people have grappled with for centuries and has helped her begin to engage with the world. She is fascinated by the way her study of ancient Greco-Roman humanities has fueled development in the modern creative arts, particularly in poetry and double bass. It is because of this that The Novae Musae Collective’s mission of bringing light and hope to underrepresented students through a Classics-based fellowship program remains incredibly dear to her. Her work in the humanities has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the Live Poets Society of New Jersey’s Editors’ Choice Prize, among others.
KEIRA BRAITHWAITE
Director of Creative Mentorship, Director of the Arts, & Prose Mentor
Keira Braithwaite is a sixteen-year-old rising senior from North Carolina who loves to read and share her passion for creative arts with any who will listen. Keira loves the humanities because they are an introspective look at all of humanity that helps us learn more about our individual selves and everything around us in the past, present, and future. She has always wondered about the way we impact the world, each other, and ourselves and why it’s important. Keira Braithwaite is currently a first-reader for Polyphony Lit., a two-year state member of The Piano Guild (a division of the American College of Musicians), and in the International Baccalaureate Programme. She’s incredibly excited to help create a supportive and enriching community within The Novae Musae Collective and promote the classics and creative arts in the hearts of young and aspiring creatives.
AMOUR MAORIE ELLIS
Director of Creative Mentorship & Prose Mentor
Amour Maorie Ellis is a fifteen-year-old rising junior at Phillips Academy Andover. She loves the humanities because she loves seeing how literature and history connect, and finds the way that different civilizations interact with the same questions like “what is a language?” or “what are the things/qualities that make people useful to society?” really fascinating. She is the coordinator for Sisterhood, the affinity group for underrepresented women of color on her campus, and the Prose Editor for her school’s literary magazine, The Courant. She’s been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her creative nonfiction with a Silver Key.
MIRA JIANG
Associate Director of Creative Mentorship & Prose/Music/Dance Mentor
Mira Jiang is a sixteen-year-old rising junior from Coppell, a suburb located in the Dallas area. She is an avid reader and loves books for the same reason she enjoys the classics—they provide gateways to another world from another time and highlight the underlying themes and struggles that have been with humanity through the ages. Her writing has been recognized by the Live Poet’s Society, the Poetry Matters Project, and her stories have been published in various literary journals. She is also the author of Straight Flush. Apart from writing, dance and music have also been a large part of her life. She has played for the Azerbaijani ambassador to the U.S. and placed third in Carmel Klavier’s International Piano Contest. Mira is excited to share her love for the arts with others and hopes she can help students discover new passions and interests through this collective.
HUDA HAQUE
Associate Director of Creative Mentorship Development & Prose Mentor
Huda Haque is a rising junior from North Carolina. She is a first reader for Polyphony Lit and enjoys writing about current events, science, and popular culture in her free time. She looks forward to being a prose mentor, as well. In addition, she loves reading historical fiction and the Classics and is very excited to be a part of this initiative to help elucidate the humanities in an interesting and engaging manner!
MAY HATHAWAY
Associate Director of Creative Mentorship & Prose Mentor
May Hathaway is a seventeen-year-old from New York City. She’s drawn to the humanities because of the way in which they can impact others. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Blue Marble Review, Sandpiper Magazine, and Perhappened Magazine and has been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. May is a prose editor for the Aurora Review, a 2020 Adroit Journal Creative Nonfiction Mentee, and a crossword enthusiast. She is most looking forward to fostering a love for the humanities in talented youth with the Novae Musae Collective.
JENNIFER WANG
Associate Director of Creative Mentorship & Prose Mentor
Jennifer is a soon-to-be freshman at Columbia University with a plan to double major in Creative Writing and Computer Science. She has experience and recognition in writing short stories, novels, and CYOA games. She enjoys talking with other students of poetry, fiction, screen-writing, and creative nonfiction—all genres that she has experimented in and wants to explore further to achieve a rich understanding of the written word. She loves to explore the relatability of narratives to the modern, multicultural audience, and history and philosophy serve as creative and intellectual stimulation for her.
SCARLETT MOSHER
Director of Classics Mentorship Development & Prose Mentor
Scarlett Mosher is a rising senior in Orinda, California. She has a passion for three things: Classics, coffee, and creative writing. She’s been writing since middle school, and studying Classics since freshman year. Both of these passions have pushed her to join her school’s Latin Club and become their historian, as well as co-found the Writers Mag, a publication that aims to bring creative writing to her high school! When she’s not in school, she loves to hole up in her room with three cups of coffee and read The Poems of Catullus by James Miche. She takes pride in her work for Project Libertad, Polyphony Lit, and The Novae Musae Collective. If you can’t find her at her computer, then she’s probably working with her fellow Latin Club officers on their latest project, or attending convention! If you see her at a CAJCL convention, or the 2021 NJCL convention, say hi!
IDIRIS EGAL
Director of Classics Mentorship Development
Idiris Egal is a seventeen-year-old rising senior from Boston, Massachusetts. He is interested in comparative literature as well as the relationship between literature and the law in contemporary standards. He loves the humanities and the classics due to its intersectionality between various disciplines, and he views it as an embodiment of transcending notions that are disregarded in mainstream society. He has been recognized in various places such as The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and Just Poetry, and he is currently writing a novel regarding nostalgia which will be set to release in the coming year. His work as the founder of Latine Loqui, a club dedicated to teaching conversational Latin to students has surely ignited his passion for the humanities. His favorite book is The Brothers Karamazov, and he thoroughly enjoys horror flicks during his free time. He is very ecstatic to work with the Novae Musae Collective and to truly elevate this program by allowing students interested in the classics to fully delve into their passions and become the individuals they wish to be.
ROXANNE ZAROFD
Associate Director of Classics Mentorship Development & Classics Mentor
Roxanne Zaroff is a rising senior from Northern California. Roxanne has been passionate about creative writing for years, and can often be found fangirling over Eula Biss. She spent eight years as a nationally competitive fencer and founded the Model UN club at her school. Classics has been a passion of hers since the Percy Jackson series changed her life, and she often spends hours at a time reading about Alexander the Great, as well as ancient libraries and the 15th and 16th centuries!
SOPHIA HE
Associate Director of Classics Mentorship Development & Classics Mentor
Sophia He is a fifteen-year-old rising sophomore from Newton, MA. She enjoys reading works of classic authors, especially those of female Latinists. She loves when she can relate to and learn from them as if there is no barrage of time, space, or language. She is also drawn to the underlying themes of humanity and society in ancient works and likes to view Classics from the perspective of history. Apart from Classics, Sophia is interested in the performing arts and writing. She has been in multiple school musical productions and is a member of the school varsity dance team. She has given a piano performance at Carnegie Hall, and her writings have been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Sophia is thrilled to be on this journey with the Novae Musae Collective to understand the modern world better through the lens of Classics.
YASSIE LIOW
Associate Director of Classics Mentorship & Blog Contributor
Yassie Liow is a rising senior in New York City. Her passion for Classics, journalism, and inclusive education brought her to the Novae Musae Collective. Yassie finds it peculiar that most people think the classical canon is untouchable and detached from modern reality. A common misconception about Classics is that its greatness comes from a universal sense of escape. The argument goes that no matter the circumstance or context, all readers will relate to ancient texts the same way. She seeks to peel back the blanket statement and expose the narratives hiding underneath. Behind the mask of great heroes saving the day are betrayals, rapes, and kidnappings that are lost in translation. Stories of women and minorities are left in the shadows. The power structures imposed in ancient tales extend to today. Yassie is a cohead of her school’s Classics club, and a former managing editor of her school newspaper. She has been volunteering with Aequora, a classical outreach program, for the past three years. She can be heard saying things like, “Have you ever hated something so much that you thought, ‘Wow, I have to write a song about this?’ That’s Horace with this tree.”
MARISSA CASH
Director of Marketing
Marissa Cash is a sixteen-year-old rising junior living in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Her love for the Classics is fueled by her interest in reading, analyzing, and telling stories—something that she believes is also the key to marketing. Some of her favorite books include Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne), and Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes). As a proud enthusiast for anything marketing, business, or finance-related, Marissa enjoys running her school’s finance club and conducting economic research—all with hopes to work in the finance industry someday (her ironic surname included). In her spare time, Marissa enjoys running, playing chess, and rewatching all current seasons of Better Call Saul. The thing she’s most excited about contributing to the Novae Musae Collective? Giving others an opportunity to indulge in the amazing world that is the Classics, of course!
ELLIE HUH
Director of Marketing
Ellie Huh is a seventeen-year-old rising senior from Reno, Nevada. She is especially interested in studying the intersections of racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ identity, and is a domestic and sexual violence advocate. Her achievements include being awarded national medals for critical essays by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, receiving a grant for feminist media studies research by UNR’s Undergraduate Research department, and being accepted to Telluride Association’s summer program for juniors. She is excited to be a part of The Novae Musae Collective because she believes that the Classics, while often imbued with heteronormative and patriarchal ideas, can offer important insights about the nuances of the modern world.
NIYATEE JAIN
Associate Director of Marketing & Prose/Poetry Mentor
Niyatee is a seventeen-year-old senior from Kolkata, India. She loves the Classics because they open up a whole new world and provide us with many new perspectives on a variety of things. She has won the Creative Writing trophy in her school multiple times and has been running a writing blog for a while. Niyatee is very excited to help you along your way as you discover some of the greatest gems ever written in this world.
AMY LI
Associate Director of Marketing & Poetry/Prose/Music Mentor
Amy Li is a rising sophomore living in Georgia. She’s loved writing, reading, and music ever since primary school. She has always been fascinated by the Classics and how they manage to transcend history. Her work appears in or is upcoming in Sandpiper, Cathartic Lit, and the “My World” anthology. She’s excited to contribute to the collective’s missions and to share her passion for the arts!
DIA ATLURI
Associate Director of Marketing, Intern for Classical Mentorship & Public Relations
Dia Atluri is an incoming Junior at Coppell High School in Texas. She’s a passionate runner and orator. Dia also loves volunteering and has teaching experience as a coach at Zenith Speech and Debate where she taught the art of speech to students of varying ages. She is ready to help educate your kids by establishing a good foundation in the Classics with her experience in writing and poetry. However, more often than not you’ll find her spreading the word of our company on social media platforms.
SHREYA VIKRAM
Director of Web Development & Prose/Poetry Mentor
Shreya Vikram is a seventeen-year-old writer based in India. She believes that the Classics lie in the intersection between a culture’s art and history, and so occupies a unique position within cultural identity. Unlike history—which is a story that’s told to you—the Classics are stories that people have told to themselves. She’s interested in how this can be a form of claiming power and crafting identity, especially for those whose stories have been systematically suppressed by those who write history. The recipient of the Dorothy West Scholarship 2020, she has been published in Lunch Ticket, GHLL, Salmon Creek Journal and elsewhere. You can find more of her writing at shreyavikram.com
RAVEN GILLESPIE
Associate Director of Web Development & Blog Contributor
Raven is a rising freshman from Albany, Missouri. She has always loved the humanities because they allow you to empathize with others and discover ideas you’ve never been exposed to. She loves both reading and writing, and is a big fan of Greek history. In addition to the Novae Musae Collective, she spends her time as a First Reader at Polyphony Lit Magazine. She is also a junior member of her local historical society and part of her school’s marching and concert band on clarinet. She hopes to write some interesting articles on the Novae Musae blog and get more students involved in classical studies.
NATASHA BANGA
Associate Director of Web Development & Music Mentor
Natasha is a rising junior from Coppell High School, in Coppell, Texas. Her passion for classical studies started at a young age, when she first began reading Greek mythology literature. Since then, Natasha has become involved in several humanities-related activities, such as piano and Indian classical dance (Kathak). Outside of her work with the collective, Natasha is an avid speaker and debater, and has ranked highly at the regional, state, and national level. Most notably, her World Schools Debate team ranked 9th in the nation at the 2020 National Speech and Debate Tournament. At nationals, she also placed 11th in Prepared Prompt Speaking. Natasha serves as the Vice President, Congress/Extemp, and Lincoln-Douglas Debate Captain for the Coppell Debate Team. She is thrilled to be a part of the collective.
SARAH KIM
Associate Director of the Arts & Music/Visual Arts Mentor
Sarah Kim is a sixteen-year-old rising senior from Long Island, New York. She is drawn to the classics because of their ability to elucidate the sublime and express qualities of human nature. Throughout the past few years, she has been a coxswain on her school’s crew team, a leadership position that has taught her adaptability and passion to work in a group setting. During quarantine, Sarah has been editing for the online publication Polyphony Lit and working as a member of the leadership team for a non-profit that connects high school students with internship opportunities. She is thrilled to be a part of the Novae Musae Collective and hopes to demonstrate her enthusiasm for the arts!
MALLIKA DANDAMUDI
Director of Public Relations & Classics Mentor
Mallika Dandamudi is a junior attending Miramonte High School in California. She has been taking Latin since 8th grade. In her free time, Mallika enjoys reading and hiking. Some of her favorite books include the Percy Jackson series and David Copperfield. Mallika also likes to hang out with her friends whenever she can get the chance to. In school, Mallika’s favorite classes are history and Latin. She hopes to continue to study these subjects in college. In the future, Mallika hopes to learn more different languages and travel the world.
MIRIAM ALEX
Associate Director of Public Relations
Miriam Alex is a rising junior residing in New Hampshire. She has always loved the humanities, from reading novels to spending hours writing. To her, the arts can be a tool that switches the lens on how people see reality, a museum to preserve how they viewed the world a few days, months, or millennia ago, or a method of catharsis. For this very reason, she believes education, from philosophy to STEM, should be extended to everyone who would like to be involved. She has spent many hours at elementary schools teaching underprivileged kids or tutoring. In her free time, she is involved with a handful of clubs, including Speech and Debate Club and TSA. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, the Pulitzer Center, among others. She hopes she can help aid the growth of Novae Musae Collective.
AMY WANG
Associate Director of Public Relations, Website Consultant, & Graphics
Amy Wang is a high school sophomore from California. Wang has won four national gold keys and one silver in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition in the past two years and has been admitted into Adroit's summer mentorship program. She loves both the humanities and the classics because they serve as bridges across cultures and times. Wang has always been an ardent believer in the idea that education at every level should be a universal thing, and hopes that her time with the Novae Musae Collective will be well spent towards achieving that goal. Wang is working as a remote research assistant for Stanford's Cohen lab and has published studies on gender perception in STEM through the Association for Psychological Science.
FAITH TSANG
Associate Director of Public Relations
Faith Tsang is a rising junior in the Houston-area. She loves the humanities because it has the ability to show us the heights we can rise to and the depths we can fall to. She is an avid reader and writer and has won multiple national medals from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Faith is also a First Reader for Polyphony Lit, an online international literary magazine for high schoolers. Her favorite books are All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. She also loves learning and teaching about literature, history, and economics. In her free time, you can find her eating ice cream, singing in the shower, or pondering the meaning of life. She is thrilled to be a part of the Novae Musae team and hopes that this initiative will further Classics and humanities education across the nation.
HSI-ER LIU
Director of Logistics
Hsi-Er Liu is a sixteen-year-old rising junior, attending Irvington High School in the San Francisco Bay Area. When she was in sixth grade, she read her first mythology-related book Black Ships Before Troy, a story about a war that started because of a woman, leading to her interest in Classics. Ever since then, she scourges through piles and piles of mythology stories to read. It was freshman year in high school when she started pondering about the idea of existence and ethics, reflecting her goal of possibly majoring in philosophy in college. Other than these interests, she has always had a passion for music and enjoys teaching many other kids, causing her to fall in love with the idea of mentoring students about Classics. Just like every member of The Novae Musae Collective, she is super excited to start this wonderful journey with fellow peers who also share her vision!
JOELLE LAMAIE
Associate Director of Blog Content, Poetry/Music Mentor, & Classics Intern
Joelle Lamaie is a high school sophomore from San Antonio, Texas. She has a passion for linguistics, world history, the classics, creative writing, and music. She believes the classics are relevant not only for their artistic influence, but also because people are people whether they wear togas or t-shirts. Joelle's poetry has been recently featured in Train River Poetry's 2020 Summer Anthology, Kalopsia Lit, and Footprints on Jupiter, and has received the 2019 Young Pegasus Award for Young Poets. She is excited to contribute to The Novae Musae Collective as a poetry and music mentor, classics intern, and director of blog content with any skills she can offer.
MALAYNA CHANG
Classics/Poetry/Prose Mentor
Malayna Chang is a sixteen-year-old junior at Miramonte High School in California. She has loved reading, writing, and history since she was very young. She loves the humanities and the Classics because of the way that it connects various groups of people and cultures over thousands of years. She has written her own novel and won awards from NaNoWriMo for the past three years. She frequently updates her personal blog dedicated to reviewing books and has won several writing contests for short stories. As a part of the Novae Musae Collective, she hopes to instill the same passion that she has for the Classics in other students and enable them to find their voices and follow their dreams.
ANTIGONE BRANDEL-IULIANO
Classics, Fashion, & Visual Arts Mentor
Antigone (they/them) is a rising Junior from Massachusetts. They love mythology and storytelling, and especially love looking at myths through different lenses to contextualize them and make them more accessible. They have a passion for horror and absurdism, and love incorporating them into writing, painting, and drag. They’re also enthusiastic about learning Latin, and are part of their school’s Conversational Latin club. They strongly believe that Classics can and should be made accessible to all students, and that the acknowledgment of the patriarchal, cis-heteronormative, and imperialist ideas within them is imperative to achieving that.
MIA GENEROSO
Classics/Dance Mentor
Mia Generoso is a seventeen-year-old rising senior from Pierrepont School in Connecticut. She is passionate about the humanities because they have the ability to connect people and to tell stories of a common humanity, as the name implies. Mia has been studying Greek and Latin for about ten years and has a deep love for both languages and the stories they tell. She is also a dancer, and embraces the arts in both her studies and free time. She is very excited to join the Novae Musae Collective and bring the Classics and the arts to a wider audience of young students.
HANNAH LING
Poetry Mentor
Hannah Ling is a rising sophomore from Selangor, Malaysia. For her, the humanities matter simply because they’re records of human thought and tradition, without which modern society and culture would be vastly different or even nonexistent. Her work has appeared in Blue Marble Review and she is a second reader for Polyphony Lit. Words, to her, have a unique capacity for describing and shaping the world. As such, she is looking forward to serving in this collective and helping to open up the incredibly versatile genre of poetry to any interested individuals.
ZOE REAY-ELLERS
Poetry Mentor & Blog Contributor
Zoe Reay-Ellers is a rising junior residing in Washington State. She loves all books equally (though realistic/historical fiction has always held a special place in her heart). She’s been published in The Eunoia Review, Sandpiper, and The Heritage Review and has been recognized as a Just Poetry finalist. She edits for a handful of literary magazines and is involved in a variety of other literary pursuits. She’s so excited to be a part of this program, and can’t wait to meet all of you!
VIVIEN SONG
Poetry Mentor
Vivien Song is a senior at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, California. She believes in the power of humanities to open the heart and to serve as a vehicle for empathy. She has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, the National Poetry Quarterly, the Poetry Society of the United Kingdom, and Hollins University. Her work is published or forthcoming in The Margins, L'Éphémère Review, and mineral, among others. Vivien is so excited to work with students passionate about the humanities, and she can’t wait to join you in creating this community.
NIKITA BHARDWAJ
Poetry Mentor & Classics Intern
Nikita Bhardwaj is a high school junior in Princeton, New Jersey. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and has been featured in publications including the Rising Phoenix Review and TeenInk magazine. When she's not editing or telling herself to write, you can find her sleeping, studying for a chem test, or watching the Great British Baking Show. Check out the literary magazine she helps run at theaurorareview.org!
SAANVI SACHDEVA
Music/Visual Arts/Voice Mentor
Saanvi Sachdeva is a rising junior from Coppell High School. She loves both the humanities and the classics because while one allows her to understand people better, the other allows her to learn about times and cultures very different from her own. She has been singing all her life and has been in her school choir and choir competitions since 8th grade. She also loves to draw and was an art teacher for part of the summer of her freshman year. Along with singing and art, Saanvi also loves dance, music, reading, and writing. She is very excited to do more with the things she loves and help others discover their passions for the arts through the Novae Musae Collective.
NAMRA KHALID
Visual Arts Mentor
Namra Khalid is an activist architect/artist, currently living in New York City. Through her work, she aims to promote sustainability, civic engagement, inclusion, healing, and resilience. She is a student of ethnography and history, striving to apply learnings from the vernacular in spaces (constructed and mental) to enhance inhabitant experience. Recently graduating from Parsons School of Design, she has conducted architectural design research in Karachi, New York, Rome, and Chiang Mai.
When not architecting, you can find her painting, wandering aimlessly, and engaging in deep conversations with strangers.
ANTHONY STINSON
Website Consultant
Anthony Stinson is a rising Junior from Sacramento, California. He has a burning passion for history, writing, and pulling his hair out over Wordpress issues. By day, he is a fiction writer and editor of his own website, The Written Werd. By night, he toils away to study game design and music while nerding out over Julius Caesar’s military victories. His favorite book is Anna Karenina and his biggest fear is writing descriptions about himself in the third person.
DANA BLATTE
Artist
Dana Blatte is a sixteen-year-old from the Greater Boston area. She loves the humanities because of their inherently interdisciplinary nature, which allows subjects as diverse as sociolinguistics, psychology, and creative writing to overlap. An aspiring author, illustrator, and polyglot, Dana is the co-editor-in-chief of her school’s literary magazine, a second reader for Polyphony Lit, and a member of Boston Climate Strike, Student Art Spaces, and more. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, and the Pulitzer Center. This summer, she will be participating in the Stanford Summer Humanities Institute as well as The Incandescent Studio’s creative writing mentorship.
