SANJAY: Fairfield tutor

Certified Tutor

My approach to tutoring is shaped by educational, professional, and general life experiences I have gained from living in six countries and working in over 20 countries. I have a Ph.D. in Disaster Management with a focus on risk management communication from the University of Salford in the Greater Manchester area of the United Kingdom. Additionally, I have a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology with a focus on Ethnography and Linguistics, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Engineering Management, both from California State University of Los Angeles. While I was in gifted student programs starting in Elementary School, at some point in my youth, I really started to face challenges with various subjects. That was difficult for me to accept because it made me feel like I was not smart. Thanks to really great tutoring, I was able to discover a new confidence and gained different ways to learn that made me enjoy academic challenges moving forward. It was this early difficulty and how tutoring helped me to overcome it that prompted me to engage in tutoring, teaching, training, and coaching throughout my academic and professional life. Because I have such an unusual educational background across my Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D., I have tutored students in a number of different countries across an extremely wide variety of subject areas. One particularly exciting experience that I had was teaching English in Japan for a year. The subjects I am most passionate about tutoring are Anthropology, Environmental Science, and Geography. What I love about all three of these subjects is that they truly reflect both the social and physical environment we live in, and I find that the world students face today will require much more focus on these subjects than in years past. Some other subjects that I have tutored are Communication/Public Speaking, History, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Math, and Geology. In addition, I have helped many students with report writing with a particular emphasis on proper research methods. Furthermore, I have coached students extensively on essay writing, with a particular emphasis on college admissions essays. My track record of helping students get admitted to top tier universities is significant. I also really enjoy working with students on test preparation as that is something I feel can be a real stumbling block that students can transcend once they have strong methods. My experience working with students has been great because of one thing above all else: I have never forgotten what life was like when I was a young student. The way I felt about those challenges and what I have learned over the years to do about them sticks with me permanently. I work very closely with students to help them become comfortable with learning in ways that are customized to them, and not making them learn subjects in a robotic manner. Learning happens best when students become passionate themselves about subjects because someone clearly explains to them the relevance of what they are learning and how important it is to understand the topics at hand. I absolutely hone in on getting students to grasp the deeper meaning behind what they are learning so that they don't feel that they are learning just because they "have to." All too often, students are not given the respect they deserve that the learning they are engaged in is because someday society is going to depend on them for what they know. I bring that reality to them that their learning is not only important for them, it is important for the world they are living in and part of. In this regard, I teach with energy, kindness, empathy, and sincerity. Students and I will win together in the endeavor of learning: as they learn from me, so too I will learn from them. Outside of academia, I travel a lot to various countries all over the world. I like to spend a lot of time in nature: beaches, forest, mountains, etc. I love just walking and hiking in unique places, and then sitting down to have an interesting meal of food that I usually wouldn't find at home. We live in a fascinating world and I continue to learn and experience as much as I can about it.