B.S. in Biochemistry & three years of full-time research at Notre Dame

Steven F.

I returned to college at Indiana University South Bend after a five-year gap and earned my bachelor's degree in biochemistry. While at IUSB, I spent about two years conducting undergraduate research and three years tutoring students in general chemistry, introductory biology, and biochemistry. I worked as a teaching assistant, embedded laboratory tutor, and tutor through the university's Academic Center for Excellence, helping students in one-on-one, group, laboratory, and virtual settings. I also worked with middle and high school students at a local community school and community learning center.

My tutoring approach focuses on identifying exactly where a student is getting stuck, breaking difficult concepts into smaller pieces, and helping them to understand the reasoning behind an answer rather than simply memorizing information. I especially enjoy helping students who feel overwhelmed by chemistry or who need concepts explained in a different way.

After graduating, I joined Dr. Holly Goodson's lab in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, where I studied the dynamics of microtubule-like proteins. My work included molecular biology and biochemistry techniques such as plasmid design, protein expression and purification, microscopy, coding, simulations, and data analysis. I later joined Dr. Christopher Patzke's neurobiology lab in Notre Dame's Biological Sciences Department. Here, I spent two years studying synaptic function and rare diseases using human and mouse neuronal models. My primary areas of experience included whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology, neuronal and stem-cell culture, live-cell imaging, and confocal microscopy.

I am most comfortable tutoring general chemistry, and I can also help students with introductory biology and biochemistry.