I have over ten years of experience as a tutor, teaching assistant, coach, and teacher in a variety of academic and non-academic settings. I am currently in my fourth year teaching as an online high school English and middle school Language Arts instructor, a position I returned to after a two year hiatus to pursue a Master's degree from Colorado State University. While at CSU, I taught First Year Composition. Just about all of my teaching and tutoring experience has centered around language, literature, and rhetoric. I genuinely enjoy this subject matter and working with people to see how they approach writing and communication. My experience has allowed me to grow into an excellent communicator and provided me with ample time to become an effective educator. Perhaps more than any other skill, though, my time working with studentsboth face-to-face and in remote learning environmentshas allowed me to see that the most effective teacher is one who empowers the individuals with whom they come into contact. Learning is an inherently creative act. It must be personal, and it must be done willingly.

Because I believe this, I see my job as ensuring that I facilitate learning in a way that best engages and challenges each individual. Students should learn to rely on themselves and their peers as we collectively build agency and confidence. A student must be able to clearly see the ways in which they have improved on the page and the manner in which their beliefs have grown, and this happens most effectively when they are the ones driving the learning. Empowering students in order to raise their awareness of their own value and abilities is a critical component of successful education.