Luiza

Certified Tutor

I obtained my BA in English from Penn State and my MS in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. I have been teaching and tutoring since my senior year of high school, when I volunteered to teach English to a local public school in my home city of Braslia, Brazil. Since then, I have worked as a learning support paraprofessional, a private tutor, a graduate course assistant, and in a few weeks I will begin work as an instructor of Neuroscience for two of Columbia University's pre-college summer program courses. My approach to learning is fueled by curiosity and direct application of abstract concepts and content into real life situations or problems. This approach fosters an interdisciplinary vision of the subjects I teach, and has enabled me to successfully support students in a variety of academic subjects, such as language arts, math, and science. I love helping students see the connections and intersections between different subjects. I believe knowledge and skill in one subject can strengthen knowledge and skill in another, a belief that is reflected in my multidisciplinary academic background. In short, I love writing, I love science, and I love math, and I love helping others succeed in these areas. This passion is all the more authentic due to my previous experience growing up as someone who faced learning difficulties in math and who entered the STEM field with a non-science background. I know what it feels like to struggle, and I also know how to overcome negative expectations about our ability (both those from people around us and those we have internalized) in order to succeed academically. For this reason, in addition to teaching content and helping develop skills, I especially enjoy the opportunity to mentor and coach students on a social-emotional level throughout their academic journeys.