I have a PhD in English literature from The University of Massachusetts Amherst. I taught writing and literature courses at the college level for 12 years at three different universities. I also worked as a writing center tutor during those years and tutored students who were writing essays in various subjects (history, communications, political science, etc). While I enjoy tutoring a broad range of subjects, I am most passionate about literature, writing, and history. Throughout my years of teaching, I've learned that students often dread writing assignments because they feel overwhelmed; to help with this, I show them how to break up the writing process into manageable steps and work with them to accomplish each stage. One of my goals as a teacher is to open my students' eyes and minds to the possibility that literature can teach them not only about various cultures and histories, but also about themselves, their experiences, and how they understand their place in the world. In my free time, I like to hike, make pottery, bake, and travel. I have lived abroad twice and had the opportunity to teach ESL to adults when I lived in the Czech Republic.