Advising with Heart & Purpose
Learning thrives when there is a fusion of head and heart
Story and Pedagogy
With over two decades of experience teaching, advising, mentoring, and coaching, FLOW Education was founded out of a desire to breathe life back into the stale, one-size-fits-all advising model. At FLOW, we believe students learn best when given individualized mentorship and holistic support. Advising and education should inspire, not defeat. Our goal is that students feel more alive in their learning, confident in their thinking, and meaningfully equipped for their future.
The FLOW educational model focuses on building strong relationships based on trust and honest communication. Learning happens best when students have mentors who truly care. We seek to understand the needs of each student and focus on sparking curiosity. Our teachers identify areas of growth and inspiration while also tying lessons to issues that actually matter to students today. FLOW challenges students to think outside the textbook and embrace growth mindsets. We carefully blend compassion and accountability to help students become more self-aware agents of positive change.
TEAM
FLOW is a team of lifelong learners, innovative educators, and overall just fun, caring folks. We see education and advising as a vehicle not only for personal growth and development, but central to shaping a more engaged, resilient society.
M
atthew Ozea
Teacher, Adviser, Facilitator, Founder
Growing up as an overachieving, small town kid, education for Matthew was more about grades until a college philosophy class changed everything. Classrooms came alive as ancient ideas transformed into challenging questions with pressing, real-life applications. Education shifted from rote memorization for short-term gains to something much bigger, more connected, more inspired.
With over 20 years of experience in the field of education, Matthew’s passion for helping students remains constant irrespective of his role: teacher, adviser, coach, mentor, tutor, consultant, college counselor.
Before co-founding FLOW, Matthew taught at Gateway to College. At G2C, he developed creative college readiness curriculum and forged deep relationships with 40 to 50 at-risk students per semester, helping them confidently transition into college coursework many would have never thought possible. Prior to Gateway, Matthew worked with approximately 30 gifted and talented Young Scholars per year as an Educational Adviser with the highly-selective Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Compassionately pushing students to think about what could be instead of simply accepting what is in their lives, Matthew helped dedicated young learners overcome barriers to achieve extraordinary things. His work helped students not only gain admission to the nation’s top colleges, but also to have unique experiences such as participating in the annual White House Science Fair or becoming published poets.
Outside of the classroom, Matthew melds his love for activity with his inherent nerdiness. He is an ever-improving woodworker, avid outdoorsman, and decent slackliner. Matthew also enjoys reading, bike adventures, and spending as much time as possible with his awesome wife.
Eva Vanek
Experiential Learning Specialist, Chief Operating Officer
At the age of 19, Eva purchased a flight to Malaysia and temporarily put college on hold. Studying international development, she needed real experiences to give context to her textbook learning. After two years of travel across Southeast Asia and Latin America, Eva returned to McGill University inspired to make the most of every educational opportunity.
Eva has over 15 years of experience with different youth and experiential education organizations. In 2006, she moved to Costa Rica to work with Reto Juvenil Internacional, a youth exchange initiative that pairs students with local grass root development programs. From 2007-2009, Eva worked as a Project Coordinator for Katimavik (Canada’s leading youth service organization). In this role, she supervised 6 communities, partnered with over 50 nonprofit organizations, and advised close to 200 youth volunteers. Eva has spent the last 12 years working for Where There Be Dragons, an educational travel organization, serving as admissions director and instructor.
Eva has travelled to over 30 countries, speaks 3 languages, and is an avid cyclist. She enjoys gardening, cooking feasts, and going on adventures with her husband.
*Bila
Chief Inspiration Officer (CIO)
Aka: B, Beast, Blee-la, BB Gun, the list goes on…
How can you look at that face and not feel better about the world? Absurdly sweet and full of personality from the start, Bila truly is one of the best. Friend to one and all, to say B is part of the FLOW family would be quite the understatement. As CIO, she has one of the most demanding gigs out there, but every day seems better than the last for this furry personification (canine-ification?) of positivity.
When she’s not scrounging for microparticles of anything remotely resembling food, you can find the Beast cruising around town in her newly upcycled bike trailer, fearlessly wading into knee-deep waters in search of fish she’ll never catch, or sweetly lazing about the FLOW Headquarters in one of her many comfy hangout spots...never far from the human best friends she loves so much.
*Sadly, Bila passed away in 2021, though she will live on forever in our hearts. Truly one of the best, her sweet, soft way will not soon be forgotten.