Welcome to AM CITY KIDS

Patricia Demetriou is a Columbus, OH native who struggled academically in school due to the challenges and struggles of day-to-day life that left little time to dedicate to schoolwork outside of school hours. Not having the supports needed at the time, Patricia’s view on what opportunities were available to her grew once she left school and began pursuing her interests. Through pursuit of her love for acting she was able to meet many people and find new opportunities, and Patricia soon began to push her expectations for herself and what she could do in the world. Not wanting to limit herself based on past experiences she jumped headfirst into new opportunities. Some experiences include teaching theater, teaching English in both Germany and China, and involvement in film and television production. Knowing her younger self would not have believed this future possible and seeing the positive impact awareness of and ability to take hold of many opportunities had in her own life; she wanted to create an organization that would provide anyone with the tools to grow into their best selves. 

Sehrish Rider joined LifeSmart Education 2014 starting off as a volunteer and has since been promoted to a board member of the non-profit. She became a staff member of AM City Kids when it opened in 2019. Sehrish is a mother to 3 children who pursued a career in education following her experience seeking resources to support their development. After seeing the positive impact tutoring had on her own children, she wanted to help other parents find resources and opportunities that would help their children grow. Her current project in development is STEAM Saturdays. STEAM (which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) Saturdays would be an opportunity for students to see how these different fields interact and are part of our everyday lives. Sehrish has an Associate of Arts degree and is currently attending Ohio State University.

Mayuri Kulkarni joined LifeSmart Education in 2022 as a volunteer. Originally from India, where she worked in the software industry for many years, she explored opportunities for work in the United States. As a mother herself, she wanted to volunteer in education, prioritizing helping young students. As this would be her first introduction to U.S. work culture it was important to Mayuri that she felt respected and valued by the team she chose to spend her time with. She was contacted by a LifeSmart team member, where she felt a very genuine connection and passion for the work being done. Mayuri went on to meet Patricia and her team and decided LifeSmart Education was where she wanted to volunteer her time and energy. Initially, she helped with clerical tasks and creating activities for young children, but as she spent more time with the team Patricia had her take on technology and administrative related tasks. Mayuri always felt encouraged by the volunteer team, who honored her time and space and allowed her to develop her skills over time. She is now the volunteer coordinator with LifeSmart Education, and is currently studying software skills to keep expanding her own education.