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.
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!
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.
Chunhui Pan - Blog Writer
Chunhui is from Shanghai, China and is studying in the IB program at Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy. He has a wide range of interests. In his free time, he enjoys researching graph theory. Besides academic activities, Chunhui also excels in rowing, skiing, and tennis. During his leisure time, he likes to watch science fiction movies and read Japanese novels to broaden his knowledge base.
Expanding on his knowledge in different fields not only enhances my intellectual curiosity but also allows me to draw connections between various disciplines, fostering creative insights and problem-solving skills. Whether it‘s exploring complex mathematical concepts or delving into the intricacies of chemical reactions, Chunhui finds joy in learning new things and pushing the boundaries of what he knows.
Chidi Nnaji - Fundraising Officer
Chidi is a high school student at University in Southfield, Michigan. He loves a good game of chess - despite being “extremely bad at it” - and an even better book. Due to the regular stress of doing everything he needed in order to get into a good college, he had been forgetting to really pay attention to sleep and how that affected him. His wake-up call was when his math teacher took a look at him and told him he needed to sleep more, something he didn't say to anybody else. That was when Chidi realized that even though high school was stressful, he shouldn't forget a key part of being human: sleep.
Justin Tam - Publicity Officer
Justin is a student at Staten Island Technical High School in New York. In addition, 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.
Janmejay Patwardhan - Social Media/Publicity Officer
Janmejay is a student at Hesston High School in Hesston, Kansas. Janmejay likes science and had recently gone to a science camp at Bethel College in Newton, Kansas. Janmejay loves to sleep and knows how important sleep is to his body, and can’t wait to learn more about how he can help others improve their sleep. His hobbies are skateboarding, hanging out with his friends, playing pickle ball, and playing tennis. He also enjoys playing soccer and tennis for his school.
Jocelyn Ross - Social Media/Publicity Officer
Jocelyn is senior at Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jocelyn dances competitively and enjoys being in nature, hiking, and of course, sleeping. She wants to learn more about sleep and all of the ways that we benefit from it, especially in productivity and health. Jocelyn is interested in studying psychology and wants to specifically learn more about neuroscience.
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.
Sohan Bobba- Blog Editor
Sohan is from The Colony, Texas and is a student at Little Elm High School. Some of his hobbies include playing video games, martial arts, and math. To Sohan, sleep is one of the most important things we can do to rest and recover. He wants to learn about the intricacies of sleep, including how to fall asleep faster and have better quality of sleep.
Joseph Chen - Director of Events
Joseph is a high school student at Whitney High School, in California. He loves to play sports like volleyball and the cello. A lack of sleep, present in almost all high school students, has led to him feeling less present and aware during the day. After taking a course in psychology, he figured out that he was not getting enough REM cycles and therefore was not getting proper sleep. He now wants to pursue a career as a neuroscientist or neurology major and eventually a doctor.