I’m so excited to join Varsity Tutors!

I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my love of reading, writing, and the required skill building that can foster a life-long love affair with words, their usage, and their meanings. And I’m pleased to share my knowledge of amazing places, people, and cultures through the field of geography.

My experiences with tutoring began at the age of eight, and these experiences greatly influence the way I teach, coach, and tutor students and clients.

It began at the kitchen table, usually right after dinner. I remember my stepdad ‘helping’ me with my math homework. It always ended badly, with him yelling at me, and me feeling stupid and small. Because of these experiences, I always felt a sense of shame about needing tutoring. I felt I wasn’t smart enough, or good enough, or that something was wrong with me because I couldn’t grasp the concepts and formulas with as much ease as my classmates. It didn’t matter that I excelled in reading, language and writing skills: I was still ashamed.

It wasn’t until high school and being in classes with teachers who spent as much time building up my self-esteem as they did teaching the subject matter that I began to shed all that baggage. I promised myself that when I finally made that decision to teach or to tutor students that I would do my best to make sure that each student I came in contact with would never experience the kind of shame or embarrassment that I once did. No one should be afraid to ask for and receive assistance.

Not only is it important that my students and clients accomplish their educational goals, but I want them to feel good about the process of learning, and I want them to experience the empowerment that comes from achieving those goals. I can honestly say that I literally stand up and cheer when I recognize that a student 'gets it'! Seeing a student or client successfully demonstrate their understanding of the materials being presented is extremely gratifying. I’m all the more pleased when I have aroused a student’s curiosity about a subject, especially a subject they initially don't find interesting.

I've had the opportunity to work and live in several countries, and those experiences have given me a much broader perspective on how a person's physical environment affects their way of life. I've had the great fortune of walking the ruins of Tulum (Mexico), standing at the gates of Kensington Palace, climbing up Dunn's River Falls (Jamaica), or observing the stalactites and stalagmites in ancient caves in Bermuda. I bring both my experience and fascination of other peoples and places to my geography tutoring sessions.

My education, training, and experience in the performing arts provides me with additional tools to help my clients. If someone is challenged with grasping concepts and information through a more traditional methodology or practice, I may introduce a technique or techniques used in the field of arts integration. Using story, rhyme, song and music can greatly assist students with the learning and long-term retention of material.

I strive to be relatable so that the tutoring sessions are fun and engaging.

Let's get started!