Award-Winning Tutors from Goshen College

I am a dedicated and patient tutor with a strong academic background and a commitment to helping students build confidence and mastery in their coursework. I focus on breaking down complex concepts into clear, manageable steps and adapting my teaching style to each student's learning needs. My goal is not only to help students improve their grades, but also to develop strong problem-solving skills and independent learning habits that support long-term academic success.

During more than three years of tutoring experience, as well as four years in the classroom, I have learned how to employ humor and frank communication to bring the best out of my students. A lively attitude and a little humility from the instructor allows students to engage with the content unburdened by the self-doubt that most people experience in an unfamiliar social setting. As a working relationship develops, I can help to build intrinsic motivation by helping information to fit into conceptual frameworks that are viewed as empowering, inviting the student into a worldview in which education is a superpower not a senseless hazing ritual imposed by uncaring institutions.

I am interested in working with ESL students who are new to Pittsburgh and the U.S.A. When I have had the chance to travel internationally in the past, I always appreciated talking to locals and learning about their country and their language from them. Moving to a new country takes so much courage, and I am always glad when I get the chance to meet someone who has come to the USA from another place, and I love helping them understand our culture and language. I would like to work directly with students who are learning English as a second language. This could be all the way from a beginning stage, for example, to be able to ask for things at a store, or for more advanced students who would like to improve their English by clarifying some grammar rules, in order to advance at work. My preferred way to work is to have students set the goals they would like to achieve, and work directly from that, so that the student is not wasting their time. I have experience teaching adult ESL students and am comfortable with teaching to improve reading, writing, communication and grammar.

As a practicing composer, arranger and orchestrator, I find great joy in sharing my love for music amongst those who are open to learn. Through my undergraduate and graduate studies of music composition, I have held various teaching assistantships and have experience working with students with varying levels of music theory, aural skills and musicianship backgrounds.

I am a 2011 graduate of Goshen College--a liberal arts college innorthern Indiana--where I studied English and Secondary Education.Since graduation, I have taught high school English, taught 5th and6th grade Art, tutored elementary and middle school students, workedand taught at an orphanage in Cambodia, and am currently working in a5th grade classroom. While I tutor a wide-range of subjects, I mostenjoy teaching English, Literature, Math, and Art. When I am notteaching or tutoring, I enjoy playing tennis and volleyball, doing artprojects, reading, writing, and exploring the great city of Chicago.