Fun Facts

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the chill in the air, the changing colors everywhere, wearing legwarmers, hoodies, scarves and gloves, and celebrating Halloween - even though I startle really easily! I also love to travel - I've been all over the U.S. and to Italy, England, and New Zealand - although I also love the feeling of coming home after being away for a while. I have cats and a three-year-old niece I adore.

About Me

I am a graduate student at Drexel working on my thesis for my MS in Arts Administration. I have a 4.0 and anticipate graduating in 2014. I was an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Italian Studies at franklin">Franklin & Marshall (BA earned 2005, major GPA 3.53, overall 3.23). At Drexel, I was a recipient of the 2013 Arts Administration Award for Academic Excellence. Before Drexel, I was a high school English/writing teacher for six years. My goal is to someday open a nonprofit organization.

As a writing major at F&M, I have a lot of experience with workshops and helping others realize their strengths and weaknesses when writing. I realized while at F&M that teaching was perfect for me! I taught in Philadelphia area independent schools for six years while also working in the schools' respective Writing Centers organizing workshops for students and writers' visits to the schools. I have worked one-on-one with hundreds of students during my six years, helping them with reading-comprehension/pennsylvania/philadelphia">reading comprehension, annotation and study skills, analysis, problem solving skills, and writing (including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction). I felt that I needed a break after six years, but now that I'm not teaching, I miss working with students!

One of the things that frustrated me when I was teaching was not having the opportunity to work one-on-one with each student who needed help. The students who needed the most help would sometimes fall through the cracks due to increasing class sizes and all of our time being pulled in many directions, and unfortunately, the schools did not offer individual philadelphia">tutoring services beyond suggesting it to the students/parents. Many times, however, I witnessed struggling students who were able to become some of the most successful students in their classes by prioritizing individual learning focused on their individual issues. I believe the process of learning is often more important than the material itself, which is best learned through