Building Pathways for Structured Thought
Sculpted Minds is a boutique studio providing online tutoring for students in grades 4–12 across public, private, and home school settings.
Our Mission
Our mission is to cultivate a dialogue between the discipline of routinized form and the spirit of bold inquiry. Recognizing that a mind cannot venture far when weighed by the clutter of the immediate, we interweave specific structural scaffolds—essential procedures and structural templates—with the rigorous habits of experts. . By anchoring reasoning and pattern-seeking in these scaffolds, we help turn aimless struggle into a calm, deliberate mastery—demonstrated when the student can clearly articulate both their results and the logic of the path.
Our Approach
The Form. To address task opacity and unfamiliarity with mechanics, we interweave structural templates—matrices, logic diagrams—with the etching of essential procedures—sentence diagramming, completing the square. Making the architecture visible and the mechanics second-nature defines clear decision points and frees the mind for powerful learning.
The Habits. As the foundation takes hold, we model the habits of experts. Students seek patterns and apply deductive rigor to test their conjectures against the rules of the discipline. A task is considered complete when a student can clearly articulate both the results and the logic of the path. These habits are practiced deliberately across contexts.
How Sculpted Minds Began
Sculpted Minds was born in June 2010, when we acquired our first student. Every weekend, this seventh grader would come over for geometry “fun” with his friend Aditya. When they got stuck, they would ask Aditya’s mom, Neela—a former schoolteacher—for help. Soon, she found herself running geometry races with the goal of solving every problem in the Art of Problem Solving Geometry book.
The child loved these sessions so much that his father insisted we formalize them into a paid tutoring arrangement. Soon after, the child brought his brother along. And his brother told his friends. And they told their friends. These zestful children returned week after week—quite a few remained until they grew up and went to college.
Over time, Sculpted Minds moved beyond the living room. While our offerings are now mostly online, our core commitment remains the same: a safe, nurturing, academically demanding space.
Our Team
Amidst academic fog we seek truth through analytical rigor, thoughtful design, and humane instruction.
Neela Ranganathan
Founder, Lead Tutor
Neela approaches academic struggle the way a good detective does a case: with order, method, and an eye for incongruities. A long-time educator, she makes complex tasks navigable without flattening them into something trivial.
-
Neela, a former schoolteacher and long-time educator, has spent more than 20,000 hours working with K–12 students. When Neela left her school teaching to homeschool her child through high school, several former students reached out to continue working with her. Neela has worked with more than 150 students, many of whom have remained for years, in subjects ranging from grammar and punctuation to high school math and college essays.
Neela holds a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her coursework focused on learning design, interpersonal negotiation, and proof techniques in mathematics. She earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University at Buffalo, graduating magna cum laude. More recently she completed PROMYS for Teachers, a summer program focused on number theory and cultivation of mathematical habits of mind.
Aditya Ranganathan
Academic Mentor, Tutor
Aditya approaches uncertainty with patience and deliberate restraint. He emphasizes fundamentals and structure, helping students see that often, seemingly unfamiliar problems rest in accessible ideas and need not provoke panic.
-
Aditya received his PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University and his BA in Physics from UC Berkeley (highest distinction).
Aditya’s interest in teaching developed at Berkeley, where he was appointed the youngest course head for Sense, Sensibility & Science, a course on reasoning and decision-making that he helped expand to Harvard, UC Irvine, and the University of Chicago. Aditya has also taught classes on mathematical modeling and Data-Science at Harvard.
Aditya currently serves as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, where he builds AI tools for educators. In parallel, he serves as Chief Technology Officer at Avix Medical, Inc., a startup focused on the early detection of breast cancer. At Sculpted Minds, Aditya works as an academic mentor and tutor across topics ranging from AP Physics to college-level statistics, accounting, and test prep.
Natalie Millan
Artist, Visual Designer
Nat approaches visual design as a way of giving shape to thought. Working with line, space, and tone, she constructs clear frames around ideas—vivifying underlying structure, allowing meaning to cohere, and inviting deeper investigation.
-
Nat is a Southern California–based illustrator working in digital and traditional media. Her work is informed by long-term drawing practice, in formal study, and training in still life, landscape, and figure drawing.
Nat is the author of the suite of illustrations throughout the site that highlight our vision of education as something that can be beautiful and beyond the banal. Nat learned about Sculpted Minds through her friend Neela, with whom she shares an appreciation for thoughtful design with a touch of whimsy. Together they conceptualized a website environment that would both inform and delight.
In addition to artwork, Nat contributes to other elements of the website’s design as well as illustration for Sculpted Minds’ future offerings.
Let’s work together
If you'd like to work with us, fill out and submit the form. Make sure to include a few details about what you’re looking for. We'll review your message and get back to you at the earliest.
