CS & Applied Math @ UC Berkeley

Alex V.

Hi, I'm Alex. I'm a Computer Science student at UC Berkeley graduating May 2026 with a 3.83 GPA, focused on the intersection of CS and applied math. My coursework includes foundational pre-algebra through college-level calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, statistics, and introductory programming in Python. I also hold the California State Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish and can tutor bilingual students in either language when that helps a concept land faster.
I have been a STEM mentor with Berkeley Engineers and Mentors since August 2022, designing and delivering weekly hands-on lessons to groups of 20 to 30 K through 8 students across 14+ schools in underserved Berkeley and Oakland communities. The program serves over 500 students, and I work with small teams of mentors to plan curriculum, prepare materials, and adapt lessons in real time to the room in front of us. I also volunteer as a one on one surf mentor with Un Mar de Colores, a North County San Diego nonprofit for youth of color, which has taught me how to build trust quickly with kids nervous about trying something new. That patience translates directly to a student staring down a hard problem set.
My approach is to find where the actual gap is before we touch any homework. Most struggling students are not stuck on the topic they think they're stuck on; they're missing something two units back, so we fix that first. I currently lead the computational side of an independent research project applying XGBoost and SHAP methods to multi-cohort metagenomic data for colorectal cancer detection, so the problem solving and debugging muscles I am asking students to build are ones I exercise daily. Whether you are prepping for the SAT, surviving AP Calculus, writing your first Python loop, or wrestling with a linear algebra proof, I would love to help.