PhD Graduate from Stanford University

Zenzele O.

I am a PhD graduate from Stanford University. I earned my PhD in Comparative Literature, which is the study of literature in three foreign languages (i.e., French, Spanish, and Portuguese) as well as one's native language (i.e., English). I have experience working with high-school students, undergraduate students, graduate students, and adults attending community colleges.

As an undergraduate student, I worked at the writing center on campus from 2013 to 2015. Upon graduation, I continued working with students as a freelance writing tutor from 2015 to 2016. During my PhD program, I developed a curriculum, accommodated students’ accessibility needs, and taught language and literature courses in French as well as English. While attending Stanford, I continued tutoring students as a CUNY Writing Tutor during 2018. When I was not tutoring, I worked with students directly as an instructor.

I derive my pedagogical methodology from the coursework, research, and instruction in which I was engaged during my PhD program. I improved my ability to edit individuals’ documents while taking pedagogical courses, which enabled me to learn how to apply new approaches to help students ameliorate their written assignments. While writing my dissertation, I obtained additional experience editing, researching in multiple languages, fact-checking information, and adhering to MLA style guidelines. As a teaching assistant, I worked closely with professors to improve my abilities to provide thoughtful, nuanced, and concise commentary to guide students toward more compelling and eloquent prose. Teaching courses independently, during the later portion of my PhD program, not only gave me valuable editing and leadership experience, but it also caused me to become quite enthusiastic about working with students on the development, tone, and structure of documents. Working with students in this capacity has imbued me with a lasting passion for teaching, editing, proofreading, and developing documents.