Ivy League Trained MD/PhD

Dan L.

First, here's a summary of my background. I majored in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at Wesleyan University. At Wesleyan, I worked two years (1989-1991) tutoring students struggling with freshman chemistry through the Wesleyan Tutoring Program. After completing my Bachelor of Arts at Wesleyan University in 1992, I later entered the Medical Scientist Training Program dual MD-PhD Program at Columbia University. After obtaining my MD (2002) and PhD (2001) at Columbia University, I was a Clinical Teaching Fellow at Harvard Medical School (2002-2004), where I taught clinical skills to third and fourth year medical students from Harvard Medical School who were completing their Internal Medicine clinical clerkship. Later, when I was an attending physician (2006-2007), I taught clinical skills to both medical students and internal medicine residents from the Milton Hershey School of Medicine. I am a certified Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine (2006).

I currently tutor local high school students (mainly freshman and sophomores) in honors chemistry and honors biology, and I have been teaching these students 1:1 as a private tutor for the past 3 years. I’ve worked with my students both in-person as well as through video, so I am well familiar with the necessary technical skills for distance learning.

My philosophy towards teaching is to avoid one-sided dissemination of information. I have found that information is better understood and better retained when students take an active role in the process. So instead of just telling students the answer to a problem, I like to ask them leading questions that result in their solving the problem themselves. I prefer to take the long term view that knowledge truly understood will be useful for a lifetime.