Jennifer: Chicago Ridge tutor

Certified Tutor

As a former BIO182 teaching assistant for 6 semesters while in college at Northern Arizona University (NAU), I learned so much about teaching biology to students of all different backgrounds, interests, and prior knowledge. I loved teaching college students so much that I started to explore becoming a college professor, which is still an eventual goal of mine. In the meantime, I look forward to tutoring students in a personalized approach via Varsity Tutors.

Working in a lab as a geneticist has been extremely rewarding. However, I've had a persistent feeling that something is missing from my life - teaching. I love explaining the science I do to friends and family, but I'm always much more excited to teach them than they are to learn.

The most important part of my teaching style is making sure I get to know who I'm tutoring. I'll often start by asking a student to explain the topic to me, and I'll correct any misunderstandings once they're finished. It's also vital to me to know the student's interests so that I can try and describe complex topics in a way that they will understand and be interested in! For example, if a student loves basketball, I'll do my best to describe cellular respiration as a team running across the court and dribbling the ball, while carefully explaining the metaphor and ensuring the student understands the actual concept.

While my expertise is in high school and college Biology, specifically molecular biology, I am very capable of tutoring students in several different subjects. In high school, I took several AP courses and exams, and I am very familiar with the format of these courses. I have a B.S. in Biomedical Science and a minor in chemistry, which included courses such as Anatomy & Physiology, Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, General Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Writing in Biology, and more. I received As or Bs in all of those courses, even through the pandemic and while working student jobs up to 30 hours a week.