I enjoy helping students get to where they want to go there are few things more rewarding to me than seeing your success unfold before my eyes! I am a strong believer that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, starts somewhere. Let me give you an example: there once was a student who was in danger of failing out of high school heading into their senior year. That student didn't like the direction their life was going, and they decided to enroll in a community college program. After a lot of failing, trying again, failing some more.that student received a scholarship to attend a Top 50-ranked program. Impossible? I say not, because that student was me!
I fell into retail management at an early age, and this motivated me to do better for myself. I enrolled as a student at Northampton Community College and, later, I was one of just three community college transfer students accepted into Lehigh University for the Fall 2019 semester. By the time it was all said and done, I attained five college degrees (yes you read that correctly). I have a B.S. in Molecular Biology, B.S. in Biochemistry, B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience, A.S. in Biological Sciences, and A.S. in Chemistry.
Along the way, I worked numerous jobs in order to sustain myself through school. Some of these roles included being a mathematics tutor (from pre-algebra through Calculus III), a teaching assistant in the Biological Sciences Department of Lehigh University where I taught Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology Laboratory techniques in addition to Genetics Laboratory Techniques. Outside of teaching, I spent more than 3 years working as an emergency room technician at a Level I Trauma Center throughout the majority of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, I work as a Separations Scientist for a confidential pharmaceutical company (Pharma takes confidentiality very seriously so seriously, in fact, that I can only share general pieces of information regarding my job and very, very little specifics as a result of a strict confidentiality agreement). And now, I like to tutor budding students, such as yourself, as a way to help you get to where you want to be. Additionally, I performed original research in a molecular biology-focused laboratory and a biochemistry-focused laboratory. I completed an Honors Thesis in the molecular biology-focused laboratory, and these findings were published in Bioelectricity (see link here if you're interested: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bioe.2023.0018).
As you can imagine, I tutor a lot of subjects, some of which include general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, developmental biology, cell biology, microbiology, analytical chemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, and.well, you get the point. My favorite subject to tutor, however, is organic chemistry. Why? Because, like many of you, it was a subject I struggled with initially. In fact, I had to retake both organic chemistry and biochemistry as an undergraduate student! By focusing on where my strengths were (and areas of opportunity), I enhanced my skillset using a step-wise approach (and lots of coffee). Nobody is born with an inherent wealth of knowledge, and I hope that I can show you that this is indeed the reality. The good news? You are already more than capable of achieving the success that brought you here in the first place. My teaching philosophy is simple: take the time to get to know each student as an individual, adapt to their unique learning and communication styles (including awareness of disabilities), and work WITH you to help you unlock your best potential. I will balance telling you what I know without robbing you of the opportunity to learn for yourself, and I will strongly consider your feedback in order to adjust my style to best meet your needs.
Some cool experiences outside of the above subjects: I spent nearly one month in Sierra Leone during the summer of 2022, a Western African nation home to one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. I was the group leader for a project known as Ukweli Test Strips, a social entrepreneurial venture that aims to lower maternal mortality through low-cost, early-and-often urinary tract infection (UTI) and preeclampsia screenings through our urinary test strips. I worked directly with Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and Sanitation, and I was responsible for maintaining a service level agreement (SLA) that allowed us to legally operate within the public healthcare system of Sierra Leone. As part of this work, I conducted more than 100 semi-structured interviews of locals within the villages, and I even got to fly over Timbuktu (not kidding)!
