Brilliant Tutoring

Whether it is homework help, boosting language skills, writing college essays, or crushing standardized tests, my work blends the best test hacks and tricks of the trade with the deeper goal of awakening intellectual curiosity and developing a student’s sense of pride and achievement in their work. The greatest gift a tutor can give is not only to raise scores and grades, but to help their student realize that it was their work, their brain that achieved the results.

Often tutoring can feel like a crutch, can feel like performance enhancement - and can create a dynamic that feels dependent. But the goal of teaching is not only to impart knowledge and develop skills, it is to inspire confidence that each student is capable of teaching themselves. That learning is a lifelong process, not simply a test result. These are the deeper skills I aspire to impart to each of my students, to help them make the mental switch from seeing school or work as something they are obligated to do, but rather is something that awakens them and makes them a better, more powerful human being. I can guarantee that they are capable of much more than they think they are.

Often, if a student is struggling, it is not because they are incapable of understanding. It is that the way they are being asked to understand is cold, impersonal. My process with each student is to understand what they want to improve, and then to learn about them as a person. What are their interests? What kinds of stories do they enjoy? Who is their best friend? Their happiest memory? As someone who is a storyteller and a visual artist, I have a broad range of ways to help a student connect to their work, in their own language, and in their own time. Patience, a customized approach, and enthusiasm for helping my students develop beyond just their academic needs is what makes my tutoring worthwhile.

Beyond the satisfaction that comes from helping my students elevate their scores and prove to themselves they are able to achieve things beyond their expectations, I learn from each one of them. Every student is unique, and no one develops or grows in the same way. I am inspired by seeing my students make discoveries, and connect to the greater human story - whether it is through the humanities or the sciences. I am reminded of how much potential we all have - it helps me to remain connected to my humanity, and my own sense of curiosity.

I remember being a student that struggled, until something clicked - I realized that if I tried to understand material in a personal way, that if I became interested in it, then the work became so much easier. I felt nourished by learning, and I think this is the deeper purpose of tutoring - it is to awaken that sense in each student, to help them find a way to make things click, to discover themselves and their experience in the great books of the world, or the pride in seeing how they can solve problems in the way the great geniuses did. There is no greater gift to the world than helping someone connect to their life, and to play a small role in their journey towards discovering their purpose.