Biography

I enjoy sharing my passion for words, language, literature and writing with my students. I firmly believe that, no matter a student’s future academic career, the ability to express oneself whether on the page, in person, in another language, or as a public speaker are keys to success.

I was born in San Francisco and brought up on the East Coast outside of Washington D.C. I earned my BA degree from Macalester College, a small liberal arts college in the Midwest where majored in Spanish and minored in geography. As I was required at Macalester to spend at least a year studying abroad, I chose to spend my junior year in South America. It is often said that the ability to read, write and think critically are crucial skills, and I am grateful that I spent four years honing those skills and taking advantage of the opportunities to learn, travel, and use another language.

In addition to my BA from Macalester, I have an MS degree in organization development from the University of San Francisco. After working for several years in consulting, HR, and recruiting, I decided that was not the path for me and I made my way back to the humanities — my first love.

My career as an educator began after college as a Trainer and Director of Training and Development at a non-profit educational and youth leadership development organization in New York City. After moving to Silicon Valley, I started volunteering as an adult literacy tutor for Partners In Reading, a program of the San Jose Public Library. I tutored adult learners for five years, helping them develop both their oral and written communication skills in English. I have also worked for Light of Knowledge Academy, an afterschool and weekend academy in Cupertino. There, I taught writing enrichment and children’s literature classes for students in 4th-11th grades and also took on some private tutoring students. I helped high school students with English assignments, literary analysis essays, and SAT prep. 

In addition to my work with AJ Tutoring, I currently work part-time as an ESL Program Assistant for Read Santa Clara, the adult literacy program of the City of Santa Clara Public Library. I teach several small group English classes and tutor adult learners one-on-one. Many of my learners are native Spanish speakers, and all are recent refugees or immigrants to the United States.

As a teacher, I think it is important to develop a rapport with my students. I like to find out their individual strengths and interests and to use these as a starting point for our collaboration together. I always find that students are more engaged if they are working with subject matter that truly interests them, so I plan lessons around their interests, whenever possible. I firmly believe that sound thinking goes hand in hand with excellent writing, so I encourage students to think first, brainstorm, write, and then revise as necessary. A first draft is not supposed to be good!