I grew up in Los Angeles and went to undergrad in New York at Barnard College. I went into college with no idea what I wanted to do or even major in, whether it be English or sociology or chemistry or whatever. While I was an undergrad, I did some non-profit SAT Math tutoring with Let's Get Ready, which was my first tutoring experience. After some academic wandering I found myself as a biochemistry major and the summer after my sophomore year kind of randomly got a job doing research in a lab at Barnard. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up going to Grad School at UPenn for Chemistry, where I worked in the lab of James Petersson studying fluorescence techniques used to monitor protein folding. If you want to know more about my research, I am happy to talk about it, just ask! It was at Penn that I really started teaching. I was a TA for multiple different courses including Gen Chem I Lab, Gen Chem II recitation, and a graduate level biochemistry course with a focus on protein folding and structure. The best part about TAing was just connecting and hanging out with students, which is why being a Gen Chem lab TA was my favorite TA position I held since I got to know those students very well. Eventually, I decided that the bench-top wasn't where I wanted to be forever so I wrote my Master's thesis and left Penn.

As a TA/tutor, I am pretty laid-back. Most of my students were 3-5 years younger than me, so I liked to treat them as adults. I firmly believe that almost anyone can understand STEM courses since STEM by its very nature is understandable. Many students find the material intimidating, but I hope to show them it really isn't all that bad. With enough patience on both ends, they can get the material, I am confident of that. With any STEM course or SAT training, the most important thing is that the students realize they are the ones in control of their education and they need to decide to care enough to work hard enough to learn. No one can force someone else to learn. If they decide they want to do the best they can, I am more than happy to help them to the best of my ability. Everything is easier with someone else completely and unequivocally on your side!