Fun Facts

I have a great love for many things! I'm a second year at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I study Biology and Public Policy and research zooplankton in a Marine Biology/Oceanography lab. I really enjoy contra dancing, rapping, singing, reading, and mnemonic devices. When able to get farther from the city, -I currently am living in Atlanta, GA- I love backpacking, climbing, spelunking, and picnicking.

About Me

My name is Drake Alexyce Orion Lee-Patterson and my favorite color is purple. I'm currently in school for Biology at Georgia Tech. I study primarily ecology, oceanography, and public policy but hope to be in an MD/PhD program post-graduation. I aspire to work as a medical anthropologist or elsewhere in the world of Public Health. I'm from Louisville, KY and San Diego, CA, though I'm currently loving the very unique Atlanta, GA. In my free time I like to write poetry and fiction and do independent study in a variety of topics. I love to travel and find fun things to do.

In high school I tutored very casually as part of my school's International Baccalaureate program (with Higher Level Biology, History of the Americas, and English). I've always been ones to atlanta">tutor friends when they've needed help as is part of any effective study group. Besides just working with friends, I would also atlanta">tutor neighborhood kids in a variety of topics (ranging from phonics, math, science, to beyond) and was/am often on call for my adult family members who have now decided to pursue a college education (my aunts, for example, have needed help overcoming their fear of math). I am the oldest of four children (with my siblings being in Pre-K, 1st grade, and 5th grade) and so I am often involved in helping them with their course materials (currently an exciting year filled with consonant clusters, subtraction, and skateboarding).

Now that I'm in college, I've studied how to go about more effective means of atlanta">tutoring. I've been actively involved in my Honors Program's special topics courses in methods of learning: HTS 2803's Near Peer Mentoring Program (where I was assigned to mentor two boys from a local high school) and BIOL 2803's Communicating Science to the Public (where we are currently designing science models/programs to help communicate biological/scientific concepts). I have worked with a couple mentoring programs around town and I remain the on call resource when friends have disputes over biology.

I am a strong advocate for the use of "multiple intelligences", as the people I've worked with often respond differently to the materials when text, images, and other media are incorporated. Depending on material content, I employ either an investigation into why something works the way it does or mnemonic devices. For example, if I were to explain how cellular respiration were to work the way it does, I would explain the mechanisms behind the process (e.g. what goes in/what comes out, glycolysis-citric acid cycle-electron transport chain, etc.) but if I were trying to find a way to memorize the bill of rights plus its amendments, I'd likely do as we did in the 7th grade and create a sentence that employs key words from each amendment.