Eugene

Certified Tutor

I started tutoring at Middlebury College. I tutored college students for a political science class as well as a creative writing class. The funny part is that while I always enjoyed writing and had a passion for it, I was never very good. I had my problems with my own writing and certainly not, at first, qualified to tutor anyone else in it. In fact, my first creative writing class I took at Middlebury, my professor told me that writing was not my strong suit.

I was discouraged. Frustrated, even. But not to the point that I wanted to quit. Rather, I wanted to be better. I wanted to prove myself; to show my professor that I could, in fact, write.

The rest of the story is rather anti-climatic. There was no inspired epiphany, when all the lights suddenly go on. It was more like turning the lights on in an empty gym, when the lights go on one by one and it takes a while for them to get bright. The lights so slowly get brighter and you don't even really notice it, they're just... on.

There is no short cut, no revelatory moment. Everything is a process. Learning is a process. And because I believe that, I also believe that anyone can learn to do anything as long as he or she puts in the time.

The only way I got better at writing is by writing more. And writing about the things that matter to me (which was and is basketball). Slowly, I established my voice, my style, and before I noticed, I became a writer. And it was Professor Ganley who recommended me to be tutor, told me, "You can write for a living."

I don't write for a living. I coach basketball now, and before that I taught English in Korea. I still tutor, and I specialize in teaching writing and SAT prep.

But what I'm really interested in is the process of learning; step by step, helping a student acquire the skills and knowledge to be successful in the given subject.