About Us
L’Atelier, Learning For Success
Tamara Makaryan
Managing Director and Founder
L’Atelier was born from a true love for children and learning. Our Founder and Managing Director Tamara Makaryan has been working in Myanmar since 2011. She holds a Master’s in Management and Law and is currently undertaking an Executive MBA at Quantic School of Business and Technology, USA. During her 15 years of successful corporate career, she has held various top management positions in the international companies in Europe, SE Asia, and Africa. Leadership, hard work, continued learning and improvement are among her core values.
In 2016 her son Adam was born. This opened a new chapter in Tamara’s life. While raising her son and spending a lot of time with other kids, she realized how important it is for children to start individualized quality learning early. Outside of the traditional schooling, with its conformity and limits. And unfortunately, she couldn’t find a place in Yangon that will offer that. So the idea of L’Atelier was born.
Tamara has engaged the most reliable and talented friends to build a unique international learning centre L’Atelier in Myanmar
Royston Chia
Director of Operations and Co-Founder
Our Director of Operations Royston Chia has been working with Tamara for more than 7 years. In the past, they prepared companies for IPO, managed complex highrisk operations, built billion-dollar business plans and completed many serious technical and economical projects together. Tamara and Royston share the same culture of continuous learning and improvement, and over the years have developed a deep mutual trust, respect and understanding.
Royston Chia is a results-driven professional with expertise in business development, finance, and technology. He has graduated from the UK University with a First-Class Honours Degree. He has over 15 years of work experience including 7 years as a Vice President of corporate business development in the energy and 8 years in the financial trading sectors.
Skilled in making rational decisions during challenges, developing and implementing digital solutions and business plans, Royston ensures L’Atelier adopts only the most innovative and efficient teaching methods and maintains the advanced infrastructure, management and quality control systems.
Julia Khalatyan Director of Education and Skills, Co-Founder
Our Director of Education and Skills Julia Khalatyan is a professional educator and a child psychologist with over 18 years of hands-on experience. From a very early age, Julia enjoyed looking after other kids, so as a grown-up, she found her true passion in teaching and helping little ones to stand on their feet, thrive and succeed. The first teachers in the life of every child are his parents. They are linguists, who teach the first words; psychologists if their child is scared or anxious; music directors and animators at the first birthday parties; artists teaching to draw the first rays of the sun. And one day there comes a moment when parents transfer children into the hands of professional educators.
As a mother of two and an experienced pedagogue, Julia understands and represents both, professional educators, and parents. And like no other, she knows how important a role of a teacher is for the future success and happiness of children. It’s a huge honor and responsibility at the same time. Julia’s path as a teacher and child psychologist has begun 18 years ago, with her graduation with a Master’s degree in Child Pedagogy and Psychology. She has also obtained a second degree with a specialty in teaching English, in addition to the various courses and qualification upgrades that she regularly takes to stay aware of the innovations in education.
The long and exciting journey from a kindergarten teacher to the founder of her own first school ‘Rabbit’s Room’ has convinced Julia that every child is talented by nature. And the main task of a teacher is to discover and nurture the development of these talents while also encouraging curiosity and love for learning. While raising her two daughters and teaching over a hundred of other children, she experienced first-hand all the imperfections and limitations of traditional teaching. This prompted Julia to develop her own teaching methods that are now applied at L’Atelier. Julia believes that the place of a teacher is not ‘above’, but right next to the child. Respecting an individual, triggering curiosity and love for learning, and praising a child’s efforts and hard work not just achievements are her main principles.
Xinying Director of Bilingual Curriculum
Xinying is a native speaker of both English and Chinese that turned her passion for languages and literature into her career. With her professional degrees in Business Administration and Translation and Interpretation (Chinese-English) from the leading Singapore Institute of Management (SIM University), Xinying has been tutoring foreign languages for more than a decade now. Her solid background and extensive practical experience allow her to create an engaging learning environment that nurtures a long-term interest in languages.
China is the world's second-largest economy, and it produces 9.3 per cent of the global GDP. Speaking the Chinese language is a necessity and an undisputed advantage for everyone nowadays. However, Chinese is often called the hardest language to learn due to the complexity of characters, vocabulary, and tone pronunciation. The truth is, whether Chinese is easy or hard depends to a great extent on the professionalism of the tutor. Xinying is a highly experienced tutor that makes the learning journey not only useful but also joyful. Her custom-made programs are tailored to the needs of learners of all ages and their individual study plans. Xinying teaches children in a fun and energetic manner, and she follows the Singapore curriculum and guidelines. The classes cover all aspects of the language: comprehension, grammar, speaking, and listening
Natalie Stepanova
Director of Arts & Craft
Nature and planet Earth with its abundant resources has always intrigued Our Director of Arts & Craft, Natalie. She has followed her passion and graduated with a Masters in Geology and Natural Science. Almost 10 years ago, Natalie and her family moved to Myanmar where she found her true home. If you ever met Natalie at Network's art and craft classes, children's birthday parties that she arranges or ordered one of her beautiful hand-made Pinata, you certainly know that love and beauty are invested in everything she does. The beauty of the nature and opportunity to make children happier through their self-expression and creativity inspire Natalie in her work. With her beautiful daughters Liza and Kate, Natalie has secret arts and crafts room at home, where they innovate and create their magic together.
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Art and Craft develop imagination and creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and aesthetic taste. Arts education has historically been reserved for "elites" and not taught in schools. Thanks to Natalie, quality Art and Craft activities are now available to everyone at L'Atelier.
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