I am a recent graduate of Grand Valley State University (GVSU). I graduated from the Honors College, with a B.S. in Biology, and minors in Natural Resource Management and Dance. During college, I was employed by GVSU, as a Biology tutor. I absolutely love working with students of all ages and personalities, though most of my experience is with high school and college aged learners. In both high school and college I tutored any form of Biological/Environmental Science as well as Algebra and English.

One of my favorite things about tutoring is watching students have "light bulb" moments when a concept makes sense. My favorite subjects to tutor are Biology and Environmental Science. One of my favorite student success stories happened after just an hour of biology tutoring. A college-aged tutee came to me for tutoring right before he was to take his last exam until the final for the course. He had a 60% in the class, and I could see the discouragement on his face as he explained the situation to me. I could tell he had a desire to do well, and certainly the ability to do so. After an hour of crash course tutoring before his exam, he told me he felt a lot better about the concepts that he would soon be tested on. He emailed me immediately after he got his results back saying "I got a 96% on my exam!!" I couldn't help but share this story with everyone I saw that day! It is these kinds of stories that fuel my passion for tutoring. Just think of how different his semester would have been if he had requested a tutor at the beginning! I believe that encouragement, study and time management skills, a strong work ethic, and a positive attitude, are a recipe for success in any subject.

I truly enjoy teaching the science behind how life and ecosystems work. I had the opportunity to study Biology and Environmental Science while in South Africa and Mozambique, and I love using the experiences I had in these places to teach students science in a fun and engaging way. I also participated in an ELS Language Partner program in college, which entailed meeting up with students learning English and working on conversation and pronunciation skills. I currently volunteer at the Literacy Center of West Michigan, where I tutor English.

Outside of academia I enjoy reading, writing blog posts, eating (and making) foods from around the world, camping, biking, and dog-sitting to name just a handful!