Hi,
I am 22 years old and have a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science with a concentration in marine biology from UMaine - Orono. I have always enjoyed helping others and have always done well in school, so unofficially peer-tutoring is something I have always done. I first started tutoring on a regular basis during high school. I was a member of the National Honor Society (NHS) club, which required members to perform 2 hours of community service per month. I tutored about 3 hours per week to do something that I enjoy, in addition to fulfilling the NHS requirement. During college, I worked for The Tutor Program, which is the on-campus peer-tutoring program at UMaine. In order to become a tutor for the program, one must have at least a B, but preferably an A, in any of the classes that one is going to tutor. I tutored physics and introductory oceanography. I was also eligible to tutor calculus, statistics, chemistry, and several marine biology courses, but did not have time to tutor all of those subjects. I was part of the Honors College and, therefore, took special classes that covered the general education requirements. This is why I did not take any courses outside of math and science and, therefore, could not tutor any other subjects. I excelled in English and history in high school, though, leaving me to believe that I would still be capable of tutoring those subjects as well.
I fully believe that tutoring is not just a job. It is the tutors responsibility to put 100% effort into helping students learn the material. In many cases, tutoring is in addition to schooling. This leads me to believe that one form of learning is not working, forcing the student to look elsewhere for help. Thus, I like to try different ways of learning the material in order to determine what works best for the student. I try to get to know students in order to determine how they learn best. I like to incorporate games and other non-traditional ways of learning. I also stress good studying habits and learning what study habits work best for each individual.