I completed my undergraduate degree at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI. There, I studied secondary education in the subjects of English and physics. The contrast between the arts and the sciences gave me great appreciation for different learning styles and different ways to grasp material. I myself had to learn to learn differently; I had to adjust to the different topics, and I spent a great deal of time studying how students learn in both the humanities and the sciences. In both places I worked with mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in the subjects as well as co-teaching with professors in the humanities and the sciences. Since then, I have completed my student teaching in both Warren, MI and Darwin, Australia in high school English and middle school English/geography classrooms respectively. These two experiences, along with many others that I have had, have allowed me to pursue my two greatest passions: teaching and traveling. And it is my hope that I get to continue to travel, meet new people, and mentor, nourish, and collaborate with new relationships along the way. My philosophy on tutoring is directly in line with this idea. A tutor is not meant to replace the teacher in the classroom. Rather, a tutor should play the role of a mentor, guiding students to find their own successes. In order to do this, a tutor takes on the role of a mentor to nourish relationships on an individual level, help students find out their own learning styles, and guide them on the path to using that knowledge to learn content. It is my belief that the first step of any mentor relationship is to get to know each other on a more personal level--to build a connection that creates a baseline of trust--before any core content can be taught. Each student has the potential to be successful, and it is up to educators at all levels to collaborate and guide them on the process of self discovery.

Swimming, Traveling, Biking, Museums, Reading, Writing, Poetry