Greenlake, Ravenna, & University District Tutors

Stephen

I am a full-time tutor and educator. For more than ten years, I've been helping students of all ages develop their reading and writing skills, organization and accountability, and overall academic curiosity and confidence.

During that time, I've learned as much as my students have. My mom was a resource teacher who helped students with disabilities thrive in the classroom and later worked as an educational consultant for international schools: between my own experience and my regular "consultations" with her, I've developed a pedagogical approach that emphasizes relationship building, student-led discovery, and a growth mindset.

I hold a Master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Washington and a Bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy from Concordia University in Montreal. As an undergraduate, I won the MacGuigan Essay Prize and the Compton-Lamb Memorial Scholarship. At the end of my Master's program, my creative thesis won the David Guterson Award.

I hold a Cambridge CELTA, a certificate in ESL teaching, and have taught in North America and South Korea, in classrooms and one-on-one. Additionally, I spent a year teaching the verbal side of GMAT and GRE prep classes for PrepCorps, a Seattle test-prep company. I scored in the 99th percentile on the verbal section of the GMAT and in the 98th on that of the GRE.

Norah

I am a lifelong lover of language who is passionate about mentorship and education, so I look forward to helping you or your student grow as a reader, writer, and communicator!

I'm an east coast transplant currently pursuing a Master's in Library and Information Science at the University of Washington, with hopes to work as an academic librarian in the future. Prior to graduate school, I worked in publishing in New York City, so I have extensive professional experience finding books to suit a particular reader's taste and needs!

I have a Bachelors of Arts in English with a Citation in French from Harvard University, and a Masters of Philosophy in Irish Literature from Trinity College, Dublin. (I wrote my master's thesis on the plays of Samuel Beckett, but that doesn't mean I don't love a beach read!) I have experience writing and editing for both student and professional publications, and also have experience tutoring students in ACT reading and English, with a focus on holistic growth. I look forward to working together to help you or your student achieve your goals!

Meera

I am currently a PhD graduate student at the University of Washington studying Molecular Medicine, and graduated from UCLA with an undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and a minor in Biomedical Research.

My journey in teaching began almost 10 years ago, after I had been a competitive speller for 5 years and successfully competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in 2015. After my journey exploring, understanding, and dissecting hundreds of thousands of words, I wanted to teach students to think critically about the English language, and tutored almost a dozen students aged 6-13 1:1 over the course of 6 years to become competitive spellers. My students went on to do amazing things in and outside of spelling, winning numerous local spelling competitions and competing at the national level themselves.

As an avid speller and reader from a very young age, writing has always been an outlet and a source of expression for me. As I continued to explore various types of writing styles and genres through school, I peer tutored students for years in high school. Together, we learned what it meant to restructure pieces of work, organize thoughts, and most importantly, how to apply those skills to future writing.

I'm very passionate about working with young students and fostering their creative and technical writing abilities. Reading and writing are skills that I value incredibly in my life on a day-to-day basis and cultivating that ability to eloquently and accurately express oneself through writing is so exciting to me. I believe in collaborative learning and adapting course lessons & projects to a student's mindset, and to constantly evolve teaching styles and materials over time as a student grows. I look forward to working with students and parents to ultimately build effective communication skills, foster curiosity, and express themselves to the fullest!