Dylan: Budlong Woods tutor

Certified Tutor

Hello! I am a recent graduate of the University of Michigan with degrees in History and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and a minor in Native American Studies. I am excited to be back in southeast Michigan this year for work in research and community organizing. I am grateful that I also have this opportunity to work with students and continue developing my skills as an educator.

I have been tutoring informally for several years but it was not until college that I understood how instructive and rewarding of an experience it could be. As an undergraduate, I worked with an organization called Proyecto Avance: Latino Mentoring Association (PALMA), which paired U of M students with students of all ages from the Latino community of Ann Arbor. I worked primarily with high school students to complete homework, study for tests, develop study habits, and plan for life after high school. That experience required me to develop a much keener awareness of what I do and do not know and especially how to communicate concepts in concise ways that will facilitate lasting learning. Experimenting with different instruction techniques and finding ways to approach material that seemed worthwhile and interesting to my students was not just incredibly fun, it made very clear to me that one of my main goals in life is going to be to help younger people discover how powerful their brains are. The moment when my students realize they can and should trust themselves and that their love of learning should be celebrated is incredibly precious to me.

I have always found tutoring to be a reciprocal process. If anything, my students have always taught me more than I have taught them. This is, in my opinion, the most important feature of an effective tutor: an awareness that learning occurs collaboratively. After 22 years as a quite serious student, I have uncovered a set of skills and mental processes that have worked very well for me. I am always excited to translate these skills to younger students and to help them discover their own methods that are best suited to their particular ways of thinking and working.