Jan: Geauga County tutor

Certified Tutor

I went to high school at a prep school, Shady Side Academy, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was there that I learned English grammar, rhetoric sentence structure and how to process thoughts into words. I attended Middlebury College where I majored in English and Economics where I received a B.A. I then attended University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Graduate School where I received an MBA.

I have been an athlete playing baseball (Signed with Pittsburgh Pirates) and football (sandlot, high school and college). I have also run 3 marathons and numerous half marathons and 10Ks. My career has included merchandising, wholesaling and manufacturing, largely in Textiles and Retailing. I also was a certified personal fitness trainer and self-defense instructor.

My prep school origin is significant in that, although my career went another way, I was so motivated by my English instructors that I could not get enough of English and American literature. These instructors gave me the confidence to express myself and write. I became a published writer. And I became confident about my intellect. I assisted/tutored both my children in English and composition through their junior, middle and high school years (even helping my daughter with her writing style while she attended Harvard Law School). I have worked as an adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.) I have coached my children enabling them to attend Colgate and play 4 years of Division 1 soccer. I have also coached baseball, basketball and soccer. I mention this because I have always thought of myself as a coach/teacher even though I have no formal teaching education. I also ran an inter-city mentoring program in the Boys and Girls Clubs.

I love English reading it and writing it. I have always believed that if you have thought it through enough to precisely put it on paper (or on a word processor) you will understand it and be able to speak it with conviction. While I am, of course, fairly expert at business, economics and math, I feel a passion to help young people express themselves. If I have a teaching philosophy, it would be to help my students be excited about what they are accomplishing and to feel good about themselves. Great things come from high self-esteem