Hridaya Atwell and Hassi Bazan

Living Wisdom School Teachers, Ministers

Hridaya is the co-director of Ananda's Living Wisdom School, and raised two teenage boys and a stepson as a single parent. She also teaches the girls' high school at Ananda and is a gifted writer. What she brings to her students, children, and countless friends at Ananda are the heart qualities of warmth, disarming humor, and a deep understanding of human nature.

Though she has accomplished much in her years as an educator and parent at Ananda, her greatest qualification for teaching this course is who she is as a person.

She remarried recently, and one of the touching memories from the wedding was seeing her walk down the aisle escorted on three sides by her three tall, grown sons. You could see in their faces the love and admiration they felt for their mother.

Hassi Bazan

Hassi is the director of Ananda's Family Ministry and a teacher in the Living Wisdom preschool. She initiated and directed Ananda's Summer Camp for two years. During those first two years, the camp hosted guest children from Taiwan and India. In addition to a varied career in the Living Wisdom School, she has organized many events for parents and children. She has raised two sons and two daughters, as a single parent after the death of her husband in 1994. Her name means laughter, and she brings a radiant joy and warmth to her sharing with others. Hassi's quiet inner strength, compassion, and goodness make her a wonderful friend and teacher.