Mark

Certified Tutor

I am a graduate of Hendrix College, where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I received my Master of Arts in Romance Languages with a focus on Hispanic Language and Literary Studies. Since graduation, I have taught Spanish at North Carolina Central University, Randolph Community College, Stony Brook University, Webster University, and Washington University. At Randolph Community College, in addition to traditional university students, I taught Spanish and tutored advanced high school students in an early-college program. I am equally fluent in Portuguese in addition to Spanish, and I teach and tutor both languages, but I am also passionate about History, Literature, Science, and Pop Culture. In my experience encouraging struggling students, we have had the most fun working together to find strategies to overcome the anxieties that sometimes follow learning a new language. I consider it the highest compliment when students tell me they were nervous at first but are now actually having fun learning another language! I believe language education is a process of self-improvement gained as we collaborate with other learners. An attitude of openness to unfamiliarity is something I strive to share with all my students, and so working together, I do my best to direct them towards developing a more effective understanding of how people from other communities use language to face the struggles of everyday life.

In my spare time, I also enjoy reading, cooking Italian food from scratch, playing classical guitar, and watching ftbol from Spain.