A real chemist who actually likes organic chemistry

Oniya V.

Hello! I’m Oniya and I’m currently a 3rd year PhD student studying organic chemistry at Northwestern University! I received my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with Honors at Cornell University where I learned from tremendous instructors and scientists. Chemistry has notoriously been a difficult subject for students, but it’s my mission to help students find tools to learn and come to love it!

I’ve been involved in tutoring both chemistry and physics throughout my undergraduate career. For two years I worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant where I wrote practice problems and led discussion sections for undergraduate students in both physics and organic chemistry. I’m fascinated by how science is taught in education and how to better help students grasp the material outside of the canonical methods (i.e. 50 minute lecture). My teaching approach is giving students the tools needed to tackle any problem. As opposed to memorizing the format of specific problems, I teach students how to apply their skills to succeed.

As a graduate student I’ve been an organic chemistry teaching assistant for 3 years and love helping students learn the language that is organic chemistry. This teaching has taken the form in problem solving sessions for college level organic chemistry as well as laboratory report help, analyzing data, and scientific writing. Outside of my teaching, I learn more and more myself everyday through my own research!