Breakaway Education Scotch Plains - Westfield
Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
Email: dr.chiu@breakawayprep.com
Dr. Gordon Chiu
President, Breakaway Prep Westfield
Dr. Gordon Chiu is the principal owner/investor of Breakaway Prep Westfield-Scotch Plains. Within Breakaway Prep, he actively tutors in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math.
Gordon was born in New York and grew up in northern New Jersey. He attended and graduated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute summa cum laude in Chemistry. For his Master's in Chemistry, while working full-time at Merck, he traded the opportunity for a multi-year program at Columbia University for a three semester program at Seton Hall University. He didn't have to pay the bridge tolls or get stuck in traffic! None of this mattered much after he got a full scholarship from the National Institutes of Health for an MD/PhD program. He focused on dermatology research. Four years later, Gordon got another two scholarships and formally completed a doctoral degree in Natural medicine and a doctorate in business. Right after school, Gordon was chosen as "doctor" for numerous skincare brands including representing Demi Moore's skincare event in Asia.
Today, Gordon has a young family, a wife and two daughters under the age of 4.
Gordon is a prolific inventor with over 20 filed patents during his tenure in the corporate world. Ultimately, though, he decided to ditch the trappings of corporate America in order to spend more time teaching and motivating youth to discover their passions and pursue them with the same kinds of successes he has had– an experience he finds more rewarding, dynamic, and even, at times, more challenging than figuring out the material science, chemical, and medical applications of graphene.
He has over fifteen years of combined, in-depth, university school relationships (ranging from Berkeley, Cornell, MIT, and Northwestern to National University of Singapore, NYU, Rutgers, and Waterloo). He has also taught at the EF Academy and Horace Mann.
When not engaging with Breakaway Prep families, you can find Gordon and his family hiking through Yellowstone National Park – he recommends trying it out in each of the different seasons as each season grants its own special character and challenges.
Carey Ahsler
Carey is a New Jersey native who graduated from Chatham High School and The University of Delaware with a business degree. Following college, her decade-long career included positions in marketing research, sales consulting and marketing consulting in New Jersey serving various chemically-based industries. Her college consulting experience began with her own four children, all of whom attended either Patriot League or Division III schools. Her three sons were also college student-athletes, which provides Carey with considerable knowledge and insight regarding the specific journeys of those who wish to pursue college athletics.
College consulting grew into a passion and soon enough, Carey was helping others navigate the challenging college admissions process. Proving that what you study in college and what you end up pursuing as a career can change at any time, Carey decided to initiate her formal education to become a college counselor in 2014. Her favorite part of the job is helping students with their essays, as she is creative and loves to write. In particular, she excels at helping students find their unique and personal "voice" in the essay process, allowing their own story, traits, character and personality to shine through. Her primary goal is to help students maximize their potential and make decisions at this highly critical time in their lives, when they are about to springboard into their future and become independent for the first time.
In her free time, Carey is an active volunteer at her church and the Madison YMCA, where she is an indoor cycling instructor. She also plays competitive tennis on several teams and is an avid gardener. In addition, Carey loves to travel and spend time with her growing family and her husband, John, who is a business teacher at Chatham High School.
The thing I really appreciated about Breakaway Prep was their flexibility. If there was a track meet or play rehearsal, tutoring schedules could be rearranged. And I think it was the regular practice tests and personal feedback that made it possible for two of my kids to take the SATs once and be done with it.