Award Winning Academic Tutoring & Test Prep

My favorite subject to teach is writing. It’s a subject and skill that can be difficult for even the brightest students to master, so I enjoy breaking the mystery of it down into practical steps. I love watching students’ progress as they learn to write effectively and sometimes even begin enjoying it!

When I was a senior in college at UCSB I worked in the CLAS department tutoring fellow college students in the Writing One course as well as the ACE program, which was for English-as-Second-Language Students. One of my most memorable experiences tutoring occurred during that time. I had a student from Armenia, who was just beginning her studies at UCSB. She had only been learning English for a few years and her grasp was fairly basic. She came to me with a scholarship for which she wanted to apply that required a personal essay. If she was awarded the scholarship, she could continue her studies at UCSB. So we worked together on it for weeks. After she submitted it I didn’t see her for several months. One day, after I’d lost hope that she’d gotten it, she came in my office aglow with award letter in hand. It was the most satisfying experience of my tutoring career.

In addition to writing and English, I also like teaching introductory biology, algebra and history (American & World). No matter which subject I tutor, my method is similar. I always begin with engaging the student and helping them understand why the subject is relevant to their life. I believe that if students are only doing their homework because they have to, they will find it a boring drudgery; however, if they can understand the relevance and enjoy small steps of mastery, they will remain engaged.

That is my overall goal: to engage and teach, so that students not only get A’s on homework and tests, but also learn to value knowledge.