Leadership
Amanda Slefo
Director & Partner
(pictured on the right)
Amanda Slefo is Assyrian American from Chicago with an infectious personality, referred to as the "heart and soul" of BHS by students, parents and staff.
Prior to joining BHS, Amanda was already a distinguished high school teacher at Evanston Township High School (ETHS) in Chicago where she received multiple outstanding teacher awards. ETHS is ranked in the 95th percentile of all high schools in the United States.
Amanda is the first BHS staff member, joining BHS in the initial role as Head Teacher. Amanda has been involved in overseeing admissions, educational learning, academic performance, and university placement in her path to becoming Director. Amanda then became a Partner of BHS as well.
Amanda holds a Bachelor's Degree in History and Secondary Education. She also has an English Language Learners certification and served as Education Director of the Assyrian Cultural Foundation.
Moreover, Amanda specializes in creating dynamic learning experiences for students and continues to evolve the BHS pedagogy to create the best outcomes for students.
Akida Mashaka
Founder
(pictured on the left)
BHS is the brainchild of Akida Mashaka, an American free-spirited entrepreneur from Los Angeles, California and author of the BHS Method for Startups. Akida founded BHS to create the best learning environment for his teenage son. During Covid, he started BHS with only 5 students in a basement and 4 years later BHS has grown to over 300 students based on Akida's vision to have the best learning environment and school experience for students.
After living in Barcelona with his family, Akida experienced the antiquated teaching methods and major flaws of traditional education in schools, which were clearly exposed during Covid. Accordingly, Akida created a school to solve the problem that he had in finding the right school for his son.
Akida wanted a school with smaller class size focusing on individualized and communal learning in a family-like environment. Through a student-centered culture, innovative digital educational tools, independent learning, social engagement, and emotional confidence, Akida founded BHS to foster the skills necessary to be successful in today's modern world, not the world of the past.
While the name "Akida" means leader, Akida is a graduate of Harvard Law School and attended university on a tennis scholarship. Akida graduated #1 in Psychology for his Bachelor's degree at Morehouse College. Therefore, a one of kind work-life culture committed to academic empowerment, social confidence, emotional growth, mental health, along with athletics, extracurricular and after-school activities are collectively the backbone of BHS.
Ciarán O’Mahony
Principal
Ciarán O'Mahony is from Ireland and joined BHS in January 2022 as the second staff member of BHS. Ciarán was promoted to Principal after serving as the Interim Director, while the Director, Amanda Slefo, was on maternity leave. Ciarán has the unique gift of a way with words that makes even the most complex concepts easy to grasp for the teenage mind. Students who could never see themselves as "loving Physics" or "understanding Calculus" suddenly found themselves doing so at BHS.
Ciarán has developed the school’s Mathematics and Science Departments based on nine years of tutoring mathematics and physics to both high school and university students in Ireland. Ciarán currently teaches advanced Mathematics courses such as AP Statistics. He also trains teachers on the BHS Method™ while overseeing Professional Development and the curriculum of the school.
Ciarán holds a Bachelor of Science Honors degree in Applied Mathematics. He previously worked as a Senior Consultant with an Irish pillar bank. During this experience, he received awards for his exemplary programming and computer models that significantly improved efficiency within the bank.
Kate Bonato
Director of Admissions
Kate Bonato is the Director of Admissions and oversees admissions and homologation requirements as a licensed school in Spain. Kate is from Canada and joined BHS in September 2022 as a teacher in the Humanities Department. Kate immediately thrived within the BHS atmosphere and student-centered classrooms. BHS was the place where her talent could truly grow. Kate quickly rose from a teaching position to an administrative role and eventually into her current role.
Prior to joining BHS, Kate was working as a teacher and coordinator of a work study program in Montreal, Canada at John F. Kennedy High School. She has been teaching since 2009 and prides herself on loving her line of work and teaching from the heart. She emulates an energy that students recognize for being open, honest, and above all having their best interests at heart while still finding ways to challenge them both in and outside of the classroom.
Kate holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education and English Literature as well as a Masters of Arts in Second Language Education from McGill University in Canada. Prior to working in high schools, Kate also worked as a second language English and Spanish teacher in Spain and for the MLS Montreal Impact first team.