Palos Verdes Net Academy for STEM

Jill Duoto is the Founder and Director of High Bluff Academy. She has been an educator for 30 years as a principal, teacher, curriculum director and college counselor. She taught at Francis Parker High School, Singapore American School and international schools in Brazil, Colombia and Japan. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley and an M.A. in Education from SDSU. She also holds a College Counseling Certificate from UCSD and has been advising students on college admissions for many years. Jill has designed the curriculum for PV Net Academy and maintains the WASC accreditation, U.C. A-G list and  College Board SAT and AP programs.

Dr. Will Anderson is a Ph.D. biochemist who has lived, worked, and taught in San Diego for almost 20 years.  He received his B.A. in Biological Sciences at Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry at UCSD.  Dr. Will spent over 10 years doing scientific research at UCSD and The Scripps Research Institute before joining HBA. Dr. Will has a gift for making science accessible and exciting for students at all levels. Dr. Will oversees the curriculum and instruction for Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Science.

Ted Vegvari founded Palos Verdes on the Net in 1993 after a successful career in software engineering and computer science. Ted was founder and President of PC Lab technology, a consulting company which served the computer industry with product testing and review services, and developed software and networking systems for the U.S. military and the banking industry. Ted is an education visionary who used his personal wealth to found a non-profit organization for teaching children and adults how to use the latest technology. After moving to its present location at the Promenade Peninsula Mall, Ted has partnered with SCROC and the Palos Verdes School District to offer high school courses for credit in Career and Technical Education (CTE). In addition, he has created exciting after-school and summer programs which integrate computer science, engineering, physics, biology, electronic music and video into multidisciplinary project-based learning experiences. PV Net has hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and software licenses that are out of reach for most schools. By partnering with HBA, your child will have an opportunity to learn from industry-experienced teachers on state-of-the-art equipment. Ted teaches new concepts in an organic and holistic manner, so learning feels like play. Students take ownership for their learning and apply their creativity while guided by experts. With 28 years of teaching experience, Ted has a gift for finding just the right method and program to suite each student’s interests and learning style.

In the early 1990s and shortly before internet connectivity enabled the World Wide Web to explode in southern California, an important meeting served as a precursor to the founding of PVNet. Bill Gates & Ted Vegvari discussed the need for public spaces with free internet and computer training for all ages. They agreed there was a great need for youth to learn skills necessary to prepare for the oncoming revolution called the WEB.

Ted offered to start a nonprofit technology center for public use and Bill Gates committed to providing free unlimited Microsoft software licenses to kick start PVNet’s educational programs. From its inception in 1993, PVNet was the only center of it’s kind, and still is today.

Rob Stone is the co-owner of Study Hut Tutoring, with nine locations spanning from El Segundo to Corona del Mar.  Rob learned early on while working as a tutor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied Pre-Medicine and Spanish, that creating an educational culture that students loved was essential to their long term success.  Rob also holds an MBA from Arizona State University. In 2016, Study Hut was honored to receive the  66th Congressional District Small Business of the Year Award.  Study Hut’s helpful hand now extends beyond its walls and into the classroom at many middle and high schools to support community based student programs like AVID and The Scholar Quiz. Rob will be involved with the day-to-day administration of PV Net Academy’s operations and oversee the teaching staff.