Jose

While completing my liberal arts education at top-ranking Williams College, my passion for teaching is reflected by the numerous positions that I held during that time and beyond. In fact, I received formal teaching offers during my senior year but opted to challenge myself to explore beyond my comfort zone. A week after graduating in early June of 2006, I began my tenure as Equities Analyst for Kellogg Capital Group, the largest private specialist firm on Wall Street at the time. Although my lifestyle became financially comfortable, I longed to contribute in an intrinsically rewarding capacity. This led to my tutoring for Prep for Prep, a life-changing leadership development program. I soon found myself looking forward to the trading bell’s closing ring so that I could lose the fancy suit jacket, roll up my sleeves, and dig into the teaching trenches anywhere from the Starbucks down the street from the NYSE to some unfamiliar neighborhoods throughout New York City. Fortunately, as soon as I began planning my exit from the corporate world, I was provided a handsome severance package when I was laid off from such a promising first job out of college; while about half of the company’s employees of all ranks were let go, the unprofitable firm would later be sold. This turn of events set the stage for the priceless classroom exploratory phase I was seeking. I increased my workload with Prep for Prep and added two more positions to form a full-time schedule of teaching: I now also taught SAT Verbal at Leader’s Academy and New York Regents English Language Arts at the Harlem Children’s Zone. I was successful in these endeavors by relying on the multiple teaching styles and techniques that I had mastered to ensure that students were indeed grasping lessons during our limited contact. My newfound exposure to Harlem combined with the professional development that I received at HCZ piqued my interest for issues in education that transcend the classroom. I reduced my tutoring responsibilities to pursue an opportunity as Manager of Academic Programs for Junior Achievement, a world-famous nonprofit organization that teaches financial literacy, workplace readiness, and entrepreneurship. Training thousands of New York City students made me want to be a lead teacher so I moved on to become Director of Admissions and 7th Grade English Teacher for a private K-8 school in Newark where I helped restructure the admissions department and led an aggressive recruitment campaign that saw the school receive an unprecedented number of applicants in a bear market. Feeling the urge to pursue more adventurous pastures, I relocated to Medellin, Colombia, where I spent most of the last three years refining my Spanish. While in Medellin, I lent my services as a research consultant for a local nonprofit organization that provides health and wellness programming. I am now resuming my career in the U.S. as I continue applying to part-time graduate programs. In the interim, I am an instructor for Varsity Tutors and develop descriptive analysis for all of Major League Baseball’s online entities. I am currently pursuing my graduate studies.

avid traveler • fantasy sports geek • comedy writer • disc jockey • mixed martial artist