Experience Summary
I have had a love for the Italian language since I was 10 years old. I bought myself an Italian-English dictionary and began learning the language. In high school, I completed 4 years of Italian classes. Three of those years I was in honors classes, along with being the Italian tutor for all levels. I was chosen to be in the Italian Honors Society in my senior year. Also in that year (2008), I was awarded the medal for the Most Outstanding Italian Student, which is given to the senior with the highest GPA over four years of Italian classes.
At Illinois Wesleyan University, I completed two more years of Italian study, finishing with Italian 300, the highest level offered by the University. During those two years, I was also the only Italian tutor for all levels at the University. Along with general tutoring for the subject, I helped grade assignments and conducted study groups for the Italian 200 students. In these groups, each week for one hour we would discuss chapters of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. After each chapter, I would ask questions of the students regarding the content and main points of that chapter. These study groups not only helped the students, but also gave me more confidence and proficiency in conversational Italian, which had always been a struggle for me previously.
In May 2013, my dream of travelling to Italy finally became a reality. I was accepted into a travel-study program at Lewis University, where I was studying International Business. It was a ten day trip to Rome, Assisi, and Florence to visit churches and museums. We studied the art, architecture, and history at each site that we visited. I was extremely excited to see Italy, but I was also nervous as I had never spoken the language with a native Italian. After being in Italy for one day, however, my fears were immediately relieved. I found it very easy to communicate and understand the language.
Also in the summer of 2013, I was asked by my high school Italian teacher if I could tutor one of his sophomore students. She had missed a lot of school due to illness during the school year, and it was a pleasure helping her through the assignments and exams that she missed. After four weeks of tutoring, she had made great progress and had completed all of the material from first-year Italian.
I have a three year-old daughter who I am currently teaching Italian. She has quite a few children's books in Italian that she loves to read. Her pronunciation is getting better every day. I hope that one day her love of everything Italian will be as great as mine.
Teaching Style
I will adapt my teaching style to one that best suits the student.