I am a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College (now University) where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English-Education. I obtained my Masters Degree in Education from the University of Dayton, and obtained my certification in Autism from Marshall University, my certification in Mentally Impaired from West Virginia University, and also took graduate level education courses from the University of Phoenix. I worked in business for 34 years before I realized my dream of becoming an educator - first as a co-teacher utilizing my certification in special education, then as a regular educator. I believe all students can learn and that it is my responsibility to help them do this. I have 13 years classroom experience plus 2 years of subsitute teaching and have tutored students along the way even while I was working in business. In addition, I taught remedial high school English for 6 years as an adjunct professor at West Virginia Northern Community College. Further, I believe my experience in the business world makes me better able to prepare students for life beyond academia. I have tutored English and Language Arts for the most part but have also taught math, science, and social studies as the need arose. I prefer tutoring English especially helping students write better essays and research papers. My teaching philosophy is to do whatever it takes to help a student reach his/her full potential and can be very flexible in my methods. I have prepared students for standardized testing since 2005. When I taught full time, the majority of my students scored well above the state and national averages. I am very active in my church where I teach Sunday School, Bible Study for children, and sing in the choir. I am interested in animal welfare and support institutions for children such as St. Jude's Hospital and Shriner's Hospital. I walk regularly and enjoy reading and helping former students with essays and other writing projects. In fact, I am currently assisting an instructor at Troy University in grading papers and providing support and suggestions to the students in her freshman writing class and have done so since the fall of 2021.