Our Team
Ryan Shintani - Founder & Leader
Ryan is a student at Ridgewood High School in New Jersey. Ryan has a passion for psychology because of its practical, relatable applications. His curiosity about the importance and benefits of sleep inspired him to create an original clinical psych study to identify sleep patterns that will help facilitate self-improvement. This is also why he founded REM Reward, to bring awareness to the critical and underrated topic of sleep. Ryan highly recommends the book “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker.
In his spare time, Ryan loves playing basketball and teaching others how to become their best self through sleep, healthy eating, regular exercise, and community engagement.
Prateek Turlapati - Blog Writer
Prateek is a student at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North in New Jersey. Prateek likes engineering and recently studied with TRY Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania campus. At the camp, Prateek realized the importance of sleep and, with his fellow students, created a sleep mask idea that can track different stages of sleep. In his free time, Prateek keeps up with sleep research for the benefit of all, and he also enjoys playing soccer and volleyball.
Anh Thu Le - Blog Writer & Editor
Anh Thu is a student from Vietnam studying in Finland. Living on her own, Anh Thu likes cooking and trying new dishes (although she notes “I'm the only one that enjoys the food I make!”). Anh Thu likes sleeping, too, and during the cold and dark winter, sleeping is the only thing that she wants to do. Anh Thu looks forward to learning about sleep to better regulate it and increase her productivity!
Justin Tam - Publicity Officer
Justin is a student at Staten Island Technical High School in New York. Justin is a student athlete for the Cross Country, Track & Field, and Swim teams at his school, and he finds sleep to be a crucial part of his daily routine. In his free time, Justin enjoys pursuing many hobbies, especially photography, hiking, and reading.
Purva Jategaonkar - Director of Events
Purva is currently attending Garnet Valley High School in Pennsylvania. She enjoys drawing and running. Purva is on her school’s cross country and track team and runs half marathons on her own. Sleep plays an important role in ensuring that she performs to the best of her ability in her races. She is interested in medicine, especially the neuroscience portion of it.