Alexis: DeSoto tutor

Certified Tutor

During my senior year in high school, I made a ten-year plan for myself in the notes of my iPhone. Part of that plan included going to graduate school to receive my Master of Science in Public Relations. However, when I got to my junior year in college, I was diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder. From that point forward, I had to learn how to live my life to better myself, instead of planning my life step-by-step in order to avoid mistakes.

Although I was involved in a lot of organizations, few of them catered to women with mental health issues. Luckily, a dear friend of mine started an organization chapter called 'I Am That Girl' that allowed me to tell my story, make new friends, and make professional connections. I applied to be a web development and formatting intern for the national website, and after a round of phone interviews and Google Hangout sessions, I signed my acceptance documents in January 2016.

This internship taught me how to work with software applications such as Box, NationBuilder, Google Docs, and multiple photo editors. 'I Am That Girl' had weekly and monthly blog contributors that wrote about subjects such as sexual assault, confidence, and the media. My job was to check for grammatical errors according to Chicago style, format quotations and fonts, and to schedule the posts daily from Monday to Friday. Within my chapter at the University of Tennessee, I was the social media chair. I posted on Instagram and Twitter twice a week to connect to UT students and other IATG chapters. Reaching out to my peers everyday and knowing that my social media posts uplifted them gave me the sense of purpose that I had been searching for throughout college.

I am proud to say I am now a graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Communication. My experiences in tackling the ups and downs of academia has molded me into the tutor I am today. I love instilling confidence in students. I also love to provide them with the tools to be independent in their studies, while being a team player.