It must admit that I write this self-introduction with a sense of irony. Having studied philosophy, I remember all too well the question that Socrates posed to the famous orator Gorgias: "what do you teach?" Now I find myself being asked a similar question.
I graduated from Boston University with a major in philosophy and a minor in modern greek studies. As a student in the philosophy department I made something of a reputation for myself, earning two awards for essays I...
It must admit that I write this self-introduction with a sense of irony. Having studied philosophy, I remember all too well the question that Socrates posed to the famous orator Gorgias: "what do you teach?" Now I find myself being asked a similar question.
I graduated from Boston University with a major in philosophy and a minor in modern greek studies. As a student in the philosophy department I made something of a reputation for myself, earning two awards for essays I wrote, as well as the college prize for 'philosophical excellence.' I also excelled in my studies of modern greek. I was awarded a grant to study at the University of Athens, where I attained proficiency in greek at one of the highest tiers (Gamma 1) on the ranking system of the European Union. After three years of studying greek, I even earned the compliment from my professor that I "write like an educated Greek."
While I certainly feel comfortable tutoring philosophy and greek, I have come to realize that these subjects fall under the more general category of writing, which I consider to be my main strength. In my undergraduate years two of my pieces were published in academic academic journals, one for a philosophical essay, and the other for a poem. I was also one of the managing editors of Arche, the undergraduate journal of philosophy at Boston University. Despite this modest success, I do not consider publishing to be the proof of a good writer. Writing is a practice, a daily task. Understood in this way, it is a skill that one either has or doesn't have; it is more like learning to play an instrument. Part of this process consists in learning new techniques, and part of it consists in correcting bad habits, such as a musician does when he corrects his student's breathing and posture. But the essential idea is that the teacher does not really impart anything new, but rather provides the occasion for the student to express what was already within.
