Supporting education and innovation.

I believe a unique asset that I bring to tutoring is my breadth of knowledge, and my research experience.  I have the knowledge and skills to help students become proficient in math, biology and chemistry.  I would like to use my broad knowledge of science coupled with a diversified teaching background to help others succeed in academia and prepare for tomorrow’s jobs.  Ultimately, I would like to have each scholar leave Scholar’s Ink energized to learn more and entertain the idea of entering critical fields of math and science.

The most influential teachers in my life were those I perceived took a personal interest in my well-being, and I strive to follow that model.  Tutoring, at its very best, is a relationship between the students and the tutor in which the tutor is a mentor for students, encouraging them to better themselves, further their education and share their knowledge with others.

The term “teaching” implies one person has knowledge which he may impart to another person; the passing of information from one individual to another.  It suggests passivity on the part of the recipient.  But “learning” is the absorbing of knowledge, then the application of that knowledge to one’s own life.  Far from being passive, the act of learning requires active engagement on the part of the recipient.

As a tutor, I recognize that it is my job to bring students to a point where they want to learn, to develop a fire for learning that can never go out.  Educators facilitate learning through a thorough understanding of their subject matter, organization and presentation of their teaching material, enthusiasm for their subject, respect for their students, and by challenging their students to do the best they can possibly do.

I want to tutor students to enhance their math skills.  I want them to use math as a tool to success in their area of interest.

If biology is their interest, I want my students to acquire knowledge about everything biological – from plants to animals to microbes to the environment, and I want that knowledge to be so interesting that they become life-long learners about biology.  As an undergraduate I developed interests in plants, animals, and microbes as well as a strong interest in environmental science.  That interest was fed in graduate school at SUNY-ESF and through post-graduate work at Cornell and SUNY-ESF.  My fascination with molecular biology led me to a Ph.D. program in plant physiology under the direction of Dr. Larry Smart, SUNY-ESF and my continuing interest in disease, environmental stresses, and microbiology led to a post-doctoral position with Dr. Rose Loria, Cornell.