Joe

Certified Tutor

My career objective is to help build a better world through education: bridging cultural and social gaps by constructing channels of clearer communication and empathy. I want to teach motivated university students in a stimulating environment and I want to learn from them about their culture and society. I would like to extend my experience researching, designing and teaching professional and technical writing as well as business communication classes for prospective and current college students and professionals. Although I enjoy the challenges of practical commercial writing, I also have had the pleasure of reading, researching and writing for the academic community. I want to deepen my experience designing and teaching courses that integrate intensive reading and extensive writing in literature as well as other pragmatic disciplines such as technical and business communications. I hope to continue teaching students from different cultures to use the English language to share their values and secure their career objectives.

For many years, I taught English composition, research and argument at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro TN just outside of Nashville, TN. I was studying for a Ph.D. in English Literature, but have completed my coursework and I am now seeking a challenging work opportunity. I have a MA in English Literature and a Post-secondary reading certificate from San Francisco State University, a TESOL certificate from University of California at Berkeley, and a BA in philosophy from the University of Virginia.

Before teaching and studying at MTSU, I taught ESL to international students for over ten years including conversation, reading, writing and examination classes for the Cambridge Examinations, TOEFL examinations and US college entrance examinations. I also have extensive experience teaching executive business English classes that covered presentations, report composition, business communications, and negotiations. During this period I also assisted the director in selecting and training new instructors, acquiring language centered training technology and software, and the development of new teaching programs and teaching materials.

In addition, I have had an abiding interest in international relations and foreign affairs. I have traveled and lived abroad in India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Europe. While teaching at Boston Latin School in Boston, MA, I attended seminars and lectures at Harvard University on international trade, defense and security, and cultural exchange. At that time I also secured long-term tutoring assignments with visiting scholars from Thailand, Japan (MITI and Foreign Service), and WHO physicians and researchers. Later, I studied cross-cultural philosophy at the University of Hawaii and attended lectures at the East-West Center.