CMU Grad for Programming, Math, Biology

Simon C.

Hello, I’m Simon! I graduated from University of Washington with Bachelor’s degrees in informatics and biology. I just completed my Master’s in the computational biology program at Carnegie Mellon University.

During my time in undergrad and graduate school, it was the dedication and commitment from many of my instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) that helped me and my peers the most in learning the course material. In my first year of undergrad, I remember my computer science TAs were always there when I needed help and even offered many tips and advice when I hadn’t even begun to ask for help too. Their kindness and innate nature to help me succeed inspired me to become a TA myself for R programming and physiology during my junior and senior undergrad years.

During my time as a TA, my goal was rather simple: to help all my students learn the material and do well in the course. Since I was teaching hundreds of college students over the past few years and often had over 20 students in a single classroom, I utilized a plethora of strategies to let my students know that I am there to help them as best I can. During my classroom lectures on R programming, I went over multiple coding demos, step-by-step, while asking the students questions to help them learn the material. Knowing that people generally pay closer attention when they are interested, I tried making my presentations, demos and slides more engaging and often slightly humorous to solidify learning retention. Outside of lectures, I also sent out weekly emails to my students, providing them with clear examples related to their assignments and reminding them that I am more than happy to answer any questions they have as well as meet with them over Zoom in the evenings. I also recorded further coding demos to watch on their own time and hosted office hours as long as it took to answer everybody’s questions. Overall, I truly enjoy helping students on their educational journeys and will try to help them succeed to the very best of my ability.