I have four and a half years' experience at mentoring gifted students, and over three hundred hours' experience at tutoring STEM subjects, at both high school and college levels. I like seeing a student first understand something, and I have often done so. I have taken education classes in order to learn about teaching. I know this knowledge is already helping me become a better tutor, and may help me become a college professor someday. These classes have acquainted me with various student-centered approaches I can use to reach verbal, visual and kinesthetic learners. If I know what a student needs to discuss before we meet, I draw upon Schaum's Outlines to first acquaint myself with a topic, so that a student and I can work efficiently to help them learn. I get a lot of repeat business from students who have realized that they are filling their knowledge gaps quickly. These students also see their understanding grow and their grades improve. My interests are in chess (my rating is about 1700 USCF), board games, cooking and historical fiction. My book collection runs to over a thousand hardcover and paperback books, and I am starting to read electronic books as well. I have sold books on Alibris, and have traded hundreds in Little Free Libraries and upon the PaperBackSwap and BookMooch book trading websites. If you are a student looking to fill knowledge gaps in STEM subjects, please consider working with me to do so quickly and effectively.

chess, books, board games