Alec

Certified Tutor

I'm a recent graduate from Haverford College holding a BS in Chemistry. My interest in medicine drew me to scientific fields during my studies at Haverford, and I took many high level courses in math, chemistry, physics, and biology. I also took a number of courses in the fields of economics, philosophy, and public health. I've just recently finished a ten month term of service with AmeriCorps NCCC, a residential service program in which I lived and worked with 11 other young people on community service projects throughout the west coast. The experience was wonderful, both as an opportunity to gain a deep understanding of teamwork and gain skills in dealing with a great diversity of people, and as an opportunity to explore the country while doing some really hard and rewarding work.

I've had experience tutoring throughout college both as a teaching assistant and private tutor for high school and college level sciences. I was staff at weekly tutoring centers for both calculus and and organic chemistry, where I helped students with issues that came up on weekly problem sets or during their studying for exams. I also was teaching assistant for upper level chemistry and biology lab courses, where I helped students during lab periods complete and understand their experiments, assisted them in writing up those labs afterward, and reviewed lab reports for the professors. I also tutored high school students in the area on a variety of subjects including math and science. Personally I've benefited from tutoring on both the SAT and the MCAT, and I'm excited about the prospect of applying what I've learned from my experiences as a student to helping people with the academic challenges they face.

As far as my tutoring style, I try to keep a relaxed atmosphere because I think removing the stress from the equation when grappling with difficult problems is really important. A lot of the difficulty I've seen students have stems from frustration, and so for me focusing on taking a step back to concepts students are comfortable with, and then helping them build towards a solution to challenging problems on their own is the best way to not only help people learn, but also get them to enjoy the process of learning.