Howard: Suffolk County tutor

Certified Tutor

I graduated from the University of Michigan with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering. Later, I received an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in finance and marketing. I have always enjoyed math since I was a young child and taken pride in being the fastest and most accurate in finishing tests and in-class work. My classmates often called me for homework help and I also tutored my three children through high school calculus. This included teaching 7th grade math to my daughter over a summer which enabled her to go from 6th grade math in 6th grade to 8th grade math in 7th grade. She went on to take honors math in high school and even tutored calculus to others in college!

I entered college as a combined math and chemistry major but when the math became too theoretical and not enough practical (I have always loved solving word problems), I switched to chemical engineering which was more fun and applicable to real situations. As part of my nomination to Tau Beta Pi (engineering honorary fraternity), I volunteered to tutor math and chemistry to undergraduate students which I also enjoyed.

Many of the positions I held during my 39-year career in the oil industry involved supply chain and refinery optimization or major capital investment analysis. These required an extensive understanding of linear programming, particularly how to evaluate the results and identify the most important areas for profit maximization. I also led the development and delivery of an intensive linear programming course to teach LP practitioners how to set up and interpret results from large scale (>2500 constraints) refinery economic models used to optimize global crude oil purchases (> 1 million barrels/day) and refinery operations.

Whenever I tutor, no matter the age or level of math or economics, I seek to help the student to understand the fundamental concepts and then apply those by solving problems in a way that is fun and makes sense. Because knowledge of math and economics creates a solid foundation for understanding so many other subjects, whether in school or general living, it is very rewarding to me when the "light bulb turns on" as a student "gets it" and gains the confidence to tackle their next challenge.

I have been a Junior Achievement volunteer for 15+ years teaching concepts of business, economics and capitalism to students of all ages (elementary school to college). I enjoy playing cards and board games of all types as well as creating activity-based games which teach concepts of business and economics in a fun and interesting way.