Art teacher/director Ms.Yousun Kim is a fantastic art teacher who teaches art foundation, AP art,…read moreand college portfolio preparation. I sent my kid to her, and my kid received the highest score in the AP art class. All the portfolio preparation class students got accepted by famous art colleges and universities with very high scholarships. Many of her students received awards from major art competitions every year, and she also received the art educator awards from Scholastic Art and Writing award many years in a row. I highly recommend Soho Art Studio.

My daughter had limited experience in art before attending SoHo Art Studio, but through the…read morePortfolio Preparation Class, she was able to improve her technical skills as well as build her portfolio. She really enjoyed working in the studio with teachers who really put in effort to help students develop as artists. Though it was hard work, it definitely paid off, as she was accepted to many prestigious schools. Will definitely be recommending to my friends interested in taking their skills to the next level!!

My daughter started the lessons at CSAD San Jose location 2 years back when she was about to start…read moreHigh School freshman with the goal to have a portfolio when applying college. Young Lee and Hee Lee are both very experienced teachers, Alex too who is very helpful on coaching, though my daughter hasn't decided what related major for college, she has done many different art pieces combining the creativity and skill set and one of her pieces has won the award from Growing Up Asian In America competition. Going to CSAD for lessons and spending time there for the art piece she works on has been the escape for my daughter from her busy academic schedule. I'm grateful to find CSAD, my daughter is on the right track to build her portfolio, that will also be a nice memory that she can bring with her to college that records her love for art.

If you are looking for a nice decent place to improve your drawing skills, this place should be the…read morebest fit for you. I met great instructors Young Lee, Hee Lee, and Alex there and I really appreciate that they are very dedicated to helping students' art skills. I was, honestly, just a beginner hoping to transfer to great art schools and it was hard to get the right path. However, I was capable of working on my portfolio with diverse and aesthetic ideas with great inspiration thanks to Alex. In addition, their experienced counseling helped me a lot to search for schools to transfer and preparation for the requirements. They are both great teachers and councilors in art education. Plus, their life drawing classes are very helpful to observe the human body and find own styles of drawing with various nude models.

Our son has had a bad experience here.  He says that he gets a piece of paper to work off of, and…read morethe coaches come by every once in awhile and ask if it is ok, and that is about the extent of the coaching.  He has had problems with parts missing from his project as other students take things out of his bin when they can't find something.  They are usually the high demand parts, so he has a really tough time replacing them.  When he asks the coaches, they tell him to go look for the part, and he spends a good portion of the time looking for parts as they don't provide it for him.   He says when he has a question, several other smaller kids interrupt, and the coach's attention gets scattered, and they don't answer his question ultimately.   So, all in all, he is not able to make much progress week to week.  I was shocked, as the per lesson cost of this program is almost the price of private music or tennis instruction, that he would get so little attention and help.  Something so simple as the low availability of parts is something that could be managed, and there should be enough coaches to answer the kids' questions. I had asked about the competition path last summer and was told our son had to learn the basics for about a year first. When we said we would like to cancel, all of a sudden, this competition "class" was an option. I suspect that this basically operates like a daycare with legos for most, and all the actual coaching gets saved for the few kids in competition.

My favorite website for all the Dublin News!!! It is on Facebook, too!!read more

My kids have been attending his studio when he was in Pleasanton and San Ramon for about two years…read moreand we had nothing but praises for Mr. Li, but not anymore. He recently changed his tuition structure for 15 classes for $300 which we paid but he never mentioned that we had to use it in 5 months. This past weekend, when we try to use the last two sessions, Mr. Li said we can't because it expired! We told Mr. Li that he never told us that when we paid the fee and he said his policy is posted on the window (which we never noticed until he mentioned it). Mr. Li said he also post this information on his website but we told him it doesn't matter because he should have said something to us when we paid him or should have given us a receipt with this information or something in writing to that effect. He stood his ground and told my wife that if our kids want to attend we need to pay. Mr. Li, you've been teaching our two kids for over two years but what you did is wrong. Regardless of what your sign said, you never told us we had to use it within five months and you as good business practice and teacher for my kids for over two years, you should've just let them attend the class and we would've keep coming. We were not asking for anything free, all we were asking is to let us use what we paid for. Now, you've lost two students and we're going to spread the word to everyone we know about our experience. Was what you did worth it?

I grew up at this art studio! I recently left for college, but I attended Li's Art Studio from…read moreelementary school to high school. Mr. Li is a great teacher and encouraged us to grow as artists. We have learned to use a variety of mediums, from pencil sketching, oil painting, watercolor, to traditional chinese guóhuà. We also learned to draw a lot of different subjects like portraits, landscapes, still life - pretty much anything I was interested in, Mr. Li could teach it. Every year we'd have a field trip to a local park - including Coyote Hills and Quarry Lakes to paint real life landscapes with watercolors that we'd drag along. It was always fun, and I still have those paintings hanging up in my childhood room. By the time I left, I had a portfolio that I was really happy with, and throughout my time there he encouraged and helped us to enter into local art contests. He really supported my creativity, and although I decided that drawing isn't really for me as a career, I still find it super-duper useful at school and work in engineering because I communicate my ideas through quick sketches. I cannot recommend Mr. Li's art studio enough!

Called this school a few times and no one answered the phone. The number didn't even have a…read morevoicemail indicating that it was for the art school so I was hesitant to leave my information. I then wrote an email requesting information and asking for a call or email reply...no one called back. Maybe they are a good school, I guess I will never find out.

My daughter has been going to Happy Valley Art School for about 18 months. She was in another art…read moreschool in Pleasanton prior and we felt that the previous school was just giving out projects/ ideas and kids were mostly doing free drawing without learning any new techniques. Since she was enrolled in Happy Valley Art School, we noticed her art skills and techniques have progressed in an impressive fashion. She started out with Ms. Sarah and is now with Ms. Aimee. Both teachers were wonderful and brought out the best in her. At the end of each session, the teacher would stay behind and give out critiques and let the students and the parents know what they could work on. I highly recommend Happy Valley Art School if your kid is looking into improving his/ her art skills in a constructive environment!

Highly recommend! The atmosphere is super creative and welcoming, and the instruction is very clear.read more

I paid 270 a month and dropped my son off excited for him to learn about coding. After a few…read moremonths he mentioned that he sometimes just sits there with no instructor. So I went in and watched. Indeed, someone sat him down at a computer. Which he is sharing with another student. No instructor in sight. For an hour. I just paid $70 an hour for my son to look up memes. It's supposed to be 2:1 coaching. I see some coaches working with 3 students at a time. If you do want your kid to learn coaching here, make sure you stick around and speak up to make sure you're actually getting what you're paying for. I don't have that kind of time. so we ended our classes. What instructors were there seemed fabulous. I can say that working with the management has been a disaster. Great at the sales pitch. Not so great at making sure there are enough instructors for the students.

Coder School is brand new to Pleasanton my son has been attending for 3 weeks. He is new to coding…read morebut has a natural interest in computers, robots and gaming. He attends for an hour of code coaching and and hour of app team as a separate activity. We were a little unsure what to expect because he can be very nervous of group activities and has been prone to anxiety. So far however he loves Coder School! Everyone that we have met has been super friendly, welcoming and helpful. After each hours coaching we get an email telling us what has happened and what our son has achieved. He really does enjoy the time spent here, he says everyone is really friendly and the coaches are really cool. Thanks to coaches Alexander and Kaveh, to Natasha who is always so helpful and Will the owner...we are so, so pleased with our experience so far. Going beyond the coding itself, we really believe that Coder School will help build his self confidence, presentation and social skills - we can't put a price on that!

My son joined the Pleasanton campus last year. When we went for the Big Minds tour, Jessica…read morepatiently answered all his questions for more than an hour. They offered us a one week shadow period which gave him a clear idea of the school before joining. At Big Minds, my son comes home happy and regulated which never happened while at public school. He is able to advocate for himself and find solutions to his problems with the teacher's help. In the first few weeks, he developed strong bonds with some teachers. He loves the subjects taught like philosophy, law origins, politics, astronomy, etc. The best part of Big Minds is that the teachers truly connect with the students. My son is always seeking new information and so far the school has been intellectually stimulating for him. For math, they tested him and placed him at the grade level he was testing at instead of his grade level by age. He enjoys book club and last year they read books like "The Hobbit", "Lord of the Rings". He also had a great time in literacy coaching where he wrote his own book the entire year which he hopes to get published someday. Apart from the academics, my son is learning how to get through perfectionism, try new things, handle conflicting views, debate respectfully, get through things that trigger him, etc. These skills will stay with him life long. As a parent I am happy that my son enjoys school, I no longer have to advocate for him and that he has found a place where he belongs. I am grateful to the staff for everything that they do to make school such a positive experience for my child.

Our 7 year old, neurodiverse daughter spent 6 weeks in a traditonal, public school before we…read morepulled her out. In that short time it was clear the school district wasn't equiped to teach her in a way she could understand. They did not have the training, resources, or understanding of neuodiversity - instead trying to teach all kids the same way, and trying to jam every square peg into a round hole. Big Minds changed our lives. At Big Minds Pleasanton, every child is treated as an individual whose voices, thoughts, and passions are considered and heard. The staff is passionate, communicative, intelligent , and kind. My daughter WANTS to go to school every day. She is excited about learning, because she's allowed and encouraged to do so in a way that makes sense to her. I'm so grateful we found Big Minds and I encourage everyone to check it out.