Stephen

Certified Tutor

Hi there,

I'm Stephen and I'm excited to begin working with Varsity Tutors. Thanks for checking out my page.

I recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in January 2016, with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with cum laude honors. During my time at UMass I balanced my workload with recreational basketball and worked as a Peer Tutor in the Learning Resource Center on the 10th floor of Dubois Library. There I tutored Math, Physics, and Chemistry classes and found that I really enjoyed tutoring. I enjoyed the challenge of connecting with students, and working with them and alongside them, and found it to be a very rewarding job. I realized everybody comes to tutoring with different objectives, skill sets, backgrounds, and personalities and that every session required me to connect with the student on an even playing field and explore their knowledge and capabilities so that together we can identify the things that are giving them trouble, and try to address them.

I recognize that to be a tutor one has to be flexible and open to connect with the student first, to listen and figure out what things I can actually help them with. It is always my goal to help students understand concepts and problem solving strategies themselves, so that they can tackle and solve their problems and assignments themselves. I love when the students who come to me have their "Eureka!" moments and come to understand the concept they didn't grasp before, or solve the problem that had been giving them so much trouble. It's a really terrific feeling to know that I can make a difference in someone's life that way, however small it may be.

I also understand that to seek tutoring help can potentially be a nervous or uncomfortable feeling at first, and so I want anyone who might work with me to know that A) I think it takes definite courage to seek help for anything, and that B) if you work with me it will be a strictly uplifting experience and we will explore and learn together, and that I am personally invested in helping you build your knowledge and skills to meet your goals, whatever they happen to be.