Computer science teacher and basketball fanatic Stone Yan will be moving on to the next steps in his career after three years at Masters. Yan plans to continue his path as a computer science teacher, work towards goals for high school computer science education and advance side projects in California.
“I’m proud of all my students. I see the effort everyone puts in the classroom, in the gym, on the field and it gives me energy, motivation, inspiration as well.” — Stone Yan
Since he joined the Masters community in 2021, engineering, robotics and entrepreneurship classes have blossomed in the new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center that opened in the fall of 2023.
Yan’s teaching techniques have positively affected his students. Principles of Engineering student William Black ‘25 commented, “Mr. Stone has been a great teacher when it comes to engineering as instead of holding your hand through the process, he helps you understand the topic, without interfering with your thinking process.” Black said Yan’s teaching style has led him to become more confident in his engineering abilities since Yan advocates for working through issues instead of calling for help the second a problem arises.
Excited by his students’ endeavors and growth, Yan said, “I love hearing about all the things they are building, learning and exploring.” He continued with some of the projects he has watched his students nurse to fruition, “An app to decode sign language, a k-nearest neighbors collaborative filtering song recommendation algorithm, using reinforcement learning to recognize objects through a Webcam, visualizing math concepts like boids and fractals using Python and Flask.”
In addition to being a beloved computer science teacher on campus, Yan is a staunch supporter of the Masters basketball program, participating in the students in the seniors versus faculty basketball game. His top three players at the moment are Stephen Curry, Ray Allen and Jamal Crawford.
Basketball made its way into some of Yan’s most rewarding memories from his time at Masters “Playing on scout team for varsity basketball to help them prepare for games, and watching our amazing students in all their athletic events and performances, especially the ones in my classes, dorm, and advisees,” he said. “Oh, and beating the students in the seniors vs faculty basketball game.”
Yan has been an active member of the Masters community in his time here, and has left a lasting impression on his students, leaving significant pieces of advice.“Mr. Stone has preached to us throughout the year that before coming to ask him a question, you need to first identify the specific issue at hand before calling for the help of a classmate or teacher. Knowing what the issue is and being able to express it in a meaningful way is important.”
