Johanna: Woodbury tutor

Certified Tutor

I am an alumna of The Johns Hopkins University, where I received my Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology. I am now finishing my Master of Science degree in Biomedical Sciences at Drexel University, and I will begin to pursue my M.D. this August 2022 at the Drexel University College of Medicine. I have always been fond of both learning and teaching. I started tutoring children in High School as a mentor for elementary school children, and also as a tutor for high schoolers as part of the National Honor Society. At the time, I mentored two children in 2nd grade and frequently tutored my peers in Spanish, Biology, Algebra, Algebra 2, Geometry, Calculus and Chemistry. In college, I continued to tutor because it became a passion for me to see my tutees improve academically and understand material they used to think was too difficult for them to grasp. For three years as an undergraduate, I tutored elementary school children from ages 5-11 in every subject applicable, from 1st grade math and learning how to read to 5th grade science and understanding long division. I learned a lot from this experience and definitely became more patient, creative, and proactive when it came to making lesson plans and creating a fun and stimulating learning environment. When I tutored at Johns Hopkins, I was a part of the Tutorial Project, which is a program dedicated to providing free tutoring to elementary school children from Baltimore City. A lot of the kids I tutored were behind in their grade because the schools were underfunded, and the children did not get the attention and time they deserved in order to thrive academically. One of my tutees, Jorge, was a 5th grader who would throw tantrums or give me the silent treatment nearly every session. However, I remained patient and was extremely consistent with my time and the energy I put into every session, until he eventually came around and began to look forward to his tutoring sessions with me. I realized that a big reason why Jorge was behind is because he was dyslexic and being bilingual in English and Spanish sometimes made reading and writing even more confusing for him. Luckily, I am also bilingual in English and Spanish because I'm Venezuelan, and was able to give him the extra resources he needed to improve his reading comprehension and his academic confidence. I believe that every person has the ability to excel academically, and I strive to be a catalyst for each of my tutee's personal academic growth. As my program director once said "If a child does not master subtraction, they will always struggle with the concept of division. One builds off the other." I realized that she was not only referring to academic capabilities. It is the basic concept of solving any problem we encounter. We cannot move forward unless we figure out what is holding us back, and oftentimes when I start my tutoring sessions I aim to see exactly what my tutee is struggling with so we can go back to the foundations and really master that concept. Due to my past experience, I am a confident problem-solver, deeply empathetic, patient, and a very motivated tutor. In my free time, I love to dance, read, write poetry, exercise, do outdoor activities and go to the beach.