About us

Artists at heart. Builders by experience.

Years of experience. Hundreds of programs delivered for California schools. We know what is missing and how to provide it. Culture and history ground us.

Our story

One shared idea.

Culture Club Education LLC was founded by people who know school programs from every side. We started as teaching artists, each in our own discipline: dance, music, martial arts and sports. But that’s only where we began. Between us, we’ve run program operations, managed school and district partnerships, and built the systems that keep programs running for more than 50 California school districts. We know what it takes to make a program work in practice, on a Tuesday afternoon with twenty kids and one hour. We also know how to solve the bigger problems behind it, in an education landscape that is complex, layered and always changing.

We came together because we believe arts education shouldn’t be cut off from the things that give it meaning: culture, history, and the people who carry these traditions forward. Movement, rhythm and discipline aren’t extras. They’re how communities have always taught, remembered and celebrated.

On our own, each of us held one piece. Together, we’re building something whole: programming where every part gets real attention, from well-researched curriculum to diverse, well-trained teaching artists who show up fully for every class. For us, care is the standard we hold ourselves to at every site and in every hour.

We know this work, and we’re here to raise what schools can expect from it.

What that means for your school

Artists who know the art. Educators who know schools.

Teachers first

We started as the one in the room with the kids, so every program is built around what students actually need.

We know the business

We have run after-school and in-school programs at scale. We know bell schedules, compliance, last-minute changes, and the solid communication behind smooth after-school operations.

Culture at the core

Every class connects to the people and stories behind the art, so students see themselves in what they learn and connect to the real world.

Fun and focus

We use research-based teaching techniques to ensure kids are having fun while also learning valuable life skills. There’s no need for them to be separate!

Meet the founders

The people who built Culture Club Education.

Co-founder and Head Of Operations

Arsh Sood

Arsh’s path runs from being a performer, to a music teacher, to running after-school music programs for schools across California. At After School Music Academy, Arsh’s former job, he was the person who made the programs run. As Head of Operations, he ran after-school programs in 20+ California school districts and completed 60+ district contracts. He built the scheduling, quality, and compliance systems that supported the 100+ teachers who led the classes, and worked with leading nonprofits in the expanded learning space.

Music has always been at the center of it all. Arsh started learning and playing music in India, then earned a Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance from Musicians Institute in Los Angeles on a merit scholarship. He taught guitar, piano, drums, and general music to students of every age, including students in special education, and composed and played guitar with his band Malli.

Arsh co-founded Culture Club Education with one goal: to build unique programs that bring the arts, culture, and real-world connection together in ways students haven’t seen before. Today he leads the program innovation and the operations behind every partnership, turning that vision into classes students love and schools can count on.

Co-founder and Head of Partnerships

Holly Sood-Diehl

Holly knows what it takes to bring great programs to schools, because she has spent years making it happen. In her most recent role, as Head of Scheduling at Professor Egghead Science Academy, she served 20+ school districts and led a team of managers who oversaw teaching artists in eight major California cities, from Sacramento to San Diego, plus Michigan and New York. She wrote the procedures the department ran on, redesigned its training, and kept hundreds of classes running smoothly each session.

Dance has always been at the center of it all. Holly holds a BFA in Dance from SUNY Brockport and has performed, choreographed, and produced dance throughout her career. She brought that love into the classroom with Tutu School and Conga Kids, rebuilt Tutu School’s teacher training around SEL, cultural awareness, and inclusive teaching, and directed an eight-week summer dance program for 100+ children at Little Harvard Academy.

At Culture Club Education, Holly leads the dance programs and builds lasting partnerships with schools and districts, making sure every campus gets the support it needs and every student gets a class that is joyful, culturally rich, and built to last.

Co-founder and Head of Programs

Ozer Emrah Ozturk

Great programs depend on the right people in the right seats, and Emrah has spent more than a decade making that happen. As co-founder of Culture Club Education, he combines leadership experience in operations and personnel with a long practice as a martial artist and teacher.

Previously, at After School Music Academy, Emrah led Personnel and HR for three years, managing more than 100 employees at peak season and supporting programs across 20+ California school districts. He hired for every region, matched the right person to the right seat, and built the onboarding and training that got new instructors classroom-ready. He monitored class quality, resolved conflicts, and kept morale strong, so every program met the same high standard. Building teams of educators there shaped his vision for Culture Club Education. Before that, he spent eleven years at ENCEV, an energy and environment company, rising to Deputy General Manager and overseeing most of its operations, including personnel, HR and customer relations.

Emrah practiced boxing and capoeira before he found Aikido, which became his path. He has trained for nearly ten years, holds a third-degree black belt, and also trains in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He has been teaching children’s and adult classes for more than five years, including after-school classes for kids. Aikido teaches respect, focus, self-control and resolving conflict without aggression, and those are the values he brings to every Culture Club Education program. For him, martial arts and education share one goal: helping students build confidence they carry well beyond class.

Emrah holds two bachelor’s degrees, International Relations and Sociology, and is pursuing a master’s degree in Communication. Off the mat, he loves to sing.

Let’s talk

Let’s build your program together.

Tell us about your school, your students, and your funding, and we will put together a music, dance, or martial arts program that fits.

Bring Culture Club to your campus.

Tell us about your students and their needs. We’ll set up a quick call and find the right fit for your students whether it is after school or during the school day.

Prefer to talk? Reach out to us and we’ll find a time that works.

Email us at info@cultureclubedu.com
or call (213) 600-0757.

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