Experience Summary
While gaining BA in biology from a nationally ranking liberal arts college, I further expanded my knowledge by receiving a SURF/SILO Grant to conduct independent breast cancer research, working for a brain tumor research laboratory, and pursuing drug development as an independent contractor for a pharmaceutical company. As a college student, I also acted as a teaching assistant for zoology and comparative vertebrate anatomy laboratories for three years. An undeclared minor in religion, which ingrained excellent writing and critical thinking skills, enhances my extensive experience in math and science. Over the past year, I tutored a local high school student in AP calculus.
Teaching Style
I believe that students truly understand ideas and processes when they discover them independently; rote memorization does not instill thinking skills. To be a well-rounded academic, students must learn to use critical thinking and problem solving skills to work through problems and issues based on broad concepts and rules. Pupils must learn and memorize certain rules and concepts as a matter of course, but it is the ability to take these ideas and apply them to many topics, often with help and guidance, that makes a true critical thinker. I strive to intercede and guide students when necessary to push them through the barriers to fully realizing how concepts apply to different problems and situations.