Learn STEM Fast

I have a love of learning and very much enjoy passing that on to students. I find a lot of joy in guiding experiences that help others gain an intuitive grasp of new topics and appreciate being able to contribute to "light-bulb moments." I have a long history of working with students and employees who tell me that they are "bad at math" or "bad at science." Math and science are inherently cumulative subjects and an incomplete understanding of the key topics of one course often leads to a shaky foundation for all subsequent courses. A statement like "I'm bad at math" usually means that someone had a teacher sometime in the past with a teaching style that contrasted with their learning style or that they had life events that interfered with their learning and understanding of a prior key topic. There are many different learning styles and I believe it is important to tailor my approach to maximize the individual strengths of each student. Frequently, part of my teaching process is to identify where a student's broad knowledge of an area can be improved to help them pick up the material of their current coursework much more easily.

In addition to tutoring, I work as the Chief Technology Officer for a renewable energy startup corporation and lead an internship for college students majoring in Chemical, Mechanical, and Environmental Engineering. I have also led grant funded research projects for the California Energy Commission, the New York State Research and Development Authority, and the Department of Agriculture of the Mexican State of Sinaloa. My areas of expertise are all high school math courses, most college undergraduate math courses, chemistry, chemical engineering, physics, mechanical engineering, and environmental science. My work in grant funded research calls for communication skills as well though, requiring me to write reports hundreds of pages long detailing scientific work in a clear concise manner and to summarize complex problems in a manner that will be clear to non-scientists. I am able to employ this skill set in my tutoring and to help students through any part of the process of essay writing, from outlining ideas to proofreading. I also specialize in college admissions test prep (SAT, PSAT, SAT II, ACT). I was able to score perfectly on the math sections of the SAT and PSAT (National Merit Scholar), scored a 780 out of 800 on the SAT II Calculus exam, and scored a 720 out of 800 on the verbal section of the SAT. I scored well by mastering a few learnable and easy to practice techniques that I can pass on to students in my tutoring sessions.

I have a deep understanding of all high-school and most undergraduate math and take a holistic approach to teaching. Math courses are entirely cumulative from algebra all the way through non-linear differential equations and difficulty grasping new topics can usually be pinpointed as a misunderstanding somewhere in the foundation of a student's learning pathway up to that point. I have years of experience of calculus tutoring for the top ranked City College in the US, Santa Barbara City College as well as experience tutoring both less and more advanced courses.

After completing courses in science and engineering and graduating college, I took the knowledge that I'd gained and applied it to the field of renewable energy. Linking theoretical knowledge to practical applications has allowed me to gain a very intuitive understanding of the topics that I specialize in. I have established laboratories, guided operations, and trained employees and interns at chemical processing facilities in California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Australia. I also served as the project manager for a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center for over a decade.

The most important message that I tell my students is that you are capable of learning anything that you set your mind to. The advantage of tutoring is that you have someone illuminating the path that you should follow. If you are having trouble with your current work or if you would just like to understand a topic more fully, I am here to help and look forward to empowering you.