A California native, self-proclaimed “foodie” and former L.A. tour guide, Mr. Tushar Dwivedi is teaching this year’s Chemistry and Physics classes.

Although his interests and experience are eclectic, Mr. Dwivedi more recently was a math teacher at Culver City High School and also privately tutored some Shalhevet students, which is how he found the school. His wife is expecting their first baby in November.

He says teaching is not about giving difficult work, but rather about helping students succeed in areas that they normally find difficult.

“Science often times is considered hard by students nowadays,” said Mr. Dwivedi in an interview. “I think that more important than whether I’m easy or hard is that I try my hardest to make sure that students, particularly the ones who feel like they are not science students, get it.”

Learning is also something Mr. Dwivedi loves to do himself – in fact, he called learning new things one of his defining traits.

“I want to take as many classes as possible… I just really, really like that, and I think that it makes it fun to meet people,” he said. He has taken classes including container gardening, ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), and pie making.

Mr. Dwivedi grew up in Porterville, a small town three hours north of Los Angeles, and attended UCLA. He worked as a hotel concierge in Los Angeles for 4 years, which allowed him to really get to know the restaurants of the city.

Even before recommending restaurants to hotel guests, Mr. Dwivedi loved going out to eat.

“I always thought of it as a social thing,” said Mr. Dwivedi. “It would be the time I enjoyed spending with my family my relatives my friends. So I always wanted to research and know where’s the best place to go for this or that? I’ve had that be a part of me ever since I was young.”

While he was born in California, Mr. Dwivedi and his family are Hindu. Both of his parents were born in the Indian state of Gujarat. Mr. Dwivedi speaks fluent Gujarati and his first name, Tushar, means “morning dew” in the ancient Indian language Sanskrit.

He thought long and hard before deciding to join the school. In the past he had jumped at teaching opportunities that did not end up being the best fit for him, he said, but Shalhevet’s environment convinced him.

“I love the sense of community and the sense of family that the school has,” said Mr. Dwivedi. “I’m sure you hear it all the time from people but it truly is very, very unique for every element of the school to feel so close to one another.”

In addition to food and learning new things, Mr. Dwivedi enjoys bowling, photography, and going to concerts. He has been bowling his whole life and has bowled a 253.

His wife, Christina, is also from Porterville. She has been a kindergarten teacher in Anaheim for the past 14 years.