After having earned both my Bachelor's and my Master's degrees in the St. Louis area, I decided to commit myself to bettering students through education in this area. I have an honors BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in English Composition from St. Louis University and University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL), respectively. While I have always excelled at writing academic essays, it wasn't until my time at UMSL that I turned this proficiency into a profession; my two years as a Writing Lab Tutor was a fulfilling and life-changing experience for me. While my area of expertise is academic writing, I have a strong grasp of the underlying rhetorical principles that make for effective writing in various contexts.

I know exactly what teachers and administrators are looking for in "good writing," but this isn't something that I was born with or that came naturallyit is a learned skill that my own teachers have cultivated by building upon the skills I brought to the classroom. If my teachers had not recognized this, I would have had considerably more difficulty succeeding in the academic sphere. As such, the most influential facet of my own teaching philosophy is my commitment to respecting student intelligences. If my students are not confident in the abilities they bring with them to the tutoring session, then the likelihood of facilitating sustainable improvement in the student drops dramatically. In light of this, my tutoring style foregrounds the importance of first reinforcing the knowledge my students already have and then building off of this knowledge. With these skills, I have turned unconfident, struggling students into confident achievers, and have turned average students into focused scholars.

In my free time, I read as much as possible, and I try my best to journal every day. I also enjoy jogging and listening to live music with friends. Most importantly, though, I like spending time with my family, who always remain priority number one.