Fun Facts

I love traveling around the United States, visiting off-the-beaten-path landmarks and taking in the local cultures. I've been to forty-four of the states in America, and I hope to have been in all fifty within the next three years. I prefer driving around the country, but trains and buses are fun, too. I just like looking at all the crazy landscapes this country has to offer.

About Me

I'm a third-year American Studies major at maryland/columbia">columbia">maryland/columbia">columbia-university">maryland/columbia">columbia">maryland/columbia">Columbia University. This major allows me to focus simultaneously on American literature, history, and art history, which is good for me because I have a lot of separate interests. I've been on the Dean's List every semester of college and definitely pride myself on my studies. After I graduate, I'd like to teach middle or high school as well as get a graduate degree in English. Eventually, I hope to be a university professor and writer.

While working at my religious school in Chicago, I taught middle school kids in the histories and traditions of various religions, both in a classroom setting and one-on-one. I've coached children numerous times, in basketball and baseball, through my previous elementary school and boys and girls clubs in both Chicago and New York. At the club in Chicago, I would frequently assist the kids whose parents couldn't pick them up from baseball on time with their homework. Through high school, too, I would tutor middle school kids on a freelance basis, with them or their parents asking me independently and me helping them with a variety of subjects. I'd love to get more involved with one-on-one tutoring; it's fun, and I always learn a lot myself in addition to hopefully imparting some wisdom.

I try to take a more hands-off approach myself, asking prodding questions that situate the student around the answer. It's important, I think, that they not be afraid of small failures. I've always learned best by doing-- by picking up a pencil and trying a math problem, knowing that I might not get it right at first. I like to teach students how to analyze when they're wrong. If you know why you're wrong, and how to differentiate between types of failures, you can think about that the next time and eliminate those failures. I like, also, to just keep it fun, injecting a lot of fun facts and tricks, and easygoing. I'm very calm, in general, and do my best to keep everything pretty stress-free.