Fiona

Certified Tutor

I am a Bilingual EFL/ESL teacher (Spanish and English) as well as a graduate of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Psychology. During school, I was a Biology Teaching and Learning Assistant for two years and that experience sparked my joy of helping students realize their learning potential (even in their hardest subjects). As I continued my schooling, I enrolled in cognitive psychology and that experience solidified my interest in helping people learn - especially in the language aspect. Seeing how much one's language affected how they saw the world made me appreciate our brains even more.

Following graduation, I traveled to Playa Samara, Costa Rica to become EFL/ESL certified and it was one of the best experiences I have had. I enjoyed getting to know all my students and their strengths as well as implementing both the new teaching techniques I learned in the program and the teaching techniques I learned in my neuroscience and psychology classes (including many language learning theories). Because of my intensive studies, my main passion is helping students in any age range realize their language learning potential - even if they are 65 years old! (I have had 65 year old EFL students so it's possible!)

With my background of teaching a broad range of topics from Biology concepts to linguistic structures, one thing that never changes is my ability to engage my students and work with them where they are at. I firmly believe that age and current academic ability don't define a student and that every student has the potential to conquer even their toughest courses with the help of effective teaching techniques that fit the student's multiple intelligence(s) and learning styles. Whenever I have free time, I enjoy spoiling my dog and finding the perfect coffee shop to work in when it gets cold.