Who I am

I am a part-time tutor and coach living and working in Fort Worth. I bring years of experience as a tutor, including experience working with people who are on what's labeled the "autism spectrum", and working with people who find certain academic (or other) areas particularly challenging. I am a scholar first for personal reasons, and a teacher in the spirit of the word for those who want.

Do You Have Any Credentials?

I do not have any teaching, consulting, counseling, or other credential; I have no credential of virtually any sort outside of engineering and the automotive industry. However, I have an impressive academic background: I triple majored at UC Berkeley in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Applied Math and Physics on top of taking even more classes "for fun".
With my painstakingly acquired knowledge, direct experience as a tutor, and empathic style of teaching I hope to be of benefit to you.

So Why Are You a Good Tutor or Coach?

As a pursuer of understanding and knowledge, I triple majored at UC Berkeley in an engineering discipline, as well as Applied Math and Physics. Some would assume, therefore, that those subjects came naturally to me. That isn't true in my opinion. I am and have been a naturally curious person, but I am not a natural in any pursuit I've attempted. It's all taken considerable time. No one is born an expert in anything, though we have natural inclinations. I don't believe in short cuts generally.
Following graduation, I "self-taught" programming and became a programmer/web developer and enjoyed a career doing that. For the last handful of years I have been working as a mechanic, and I had to start that endeavor from scratch again and, again, put time in and rise from nothing into an experienced and capable mechanic years later, though I had moments where I was on the verge of leaving the field because "I am not a natural".
I know the pain of learning, none of us is alone in learning struggles as humans have built what we call society through the pain of trial and error. The only "trick" I have relied on is the crystallized reality that learning has an element of struggle, so if you can lean into that you can tolerate and possibly enjoy the process.

Most people seeking academic help should be struggling with a subject from the ground up, with multiple concepts in a subject, or with a less clarifying teacher. Top notch students in advanced classes seeking, for instance, specific help with a particularly challenging problem would not be as likely to benefit efficiently when compared to, say, a student struggling with the basic mathematical concepts like integration (in Calculus).

I am not a natural. I'm experienced, wise, and tested. I've been where you are roughly feeling, but in a different place. School can be abstract, and it's not always taught intuitively. I'm here to help.

Do You Have a Tutoring Philosophy?

This is a challenging question for a few reasons, first of which is that if I tutor someone, the individual probably has his or her own goals in tutoring such as passing a class for a GE, or learning for learning's sake, so it makes applying a philosophy difficult. I'm not intending to impose my philosophy on others.

That said, I generally have minimalist and simple approaches to problems. If we can get rid of a problem altogether we don't need a solution (huh?). Okay that's a bit idealistic.
In practice, I believe in understanding things from the ground up. I believe in understanding things from foundational principles, and building from them. I believe that most subjects have a lot in common, like electrical flow and fluid dynamics (the same mathematics models both).

Most subjects we study have phenomenology driven by statistical populations which move with pressures. The concept of pressure applies to many many fields and aspects of life (arguably all of them), and it provides a good example of where analogy can help clarify some fields to people who may be more familiar with the analogue. This isn't always possible of course and some fields are considered totally unintuitive. So in those cases we go back to goals and go back to our basics, and go back to solving things by breaking things down into steps if at all possible. Beyond this, my approaches tend to be very case by case as individuals learn differently.

Who are you for?

If you have one of the following needs or questions and live in the Fort Worth area I may be of benefit to you:
"I need a Math or Statistics tutor."
"I need Science help. I am really struggling with my Chemistry, Physics, or Biology."
"I need someone to proofread my essay."
"Can you help me with my Spanish grammar?"
"My son has a learning disability and I think he could use some help in school."
"I can't stay focused when I'm doing my homework."
"My Math homework is scaring me."
"I need an SAT or ACT tutor."
"Can you give me feedback on my college application essay?"
"I'm not sure what career or major to pursue."