PrepNow Tutor - Stephanie G.
Stephanie fell in love with teaching while earning her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and English from Wayne State University, where she volunteered to help local high schoolers prepare for the ACT. After graduating summa cum laude, she sought out more teaching and tutoring opportunities. While earning her MS in chemistry from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, she worked as a graduate student instructor and research associate. She currently tutors student athletes in chemistry at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
Communication is at the heart of Stephanie’s tutoring style. “It's important to have a dialogue with my students so that I know whether they're following the topics we're discussing. That way, I can slow down or speed up to match their pace of learning,” she says. She is just as excited as they are when a topic finally clicks! Instead of explaining answers, Stephanie opts for the Socratic method, which involves asking questions that guide students to finding the answers on their own. “I find that this method keeps students more engaged in their own learning and increases their confidence,” she says.
During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded the David and Beverly Rorabacher Award in Quantitative Analytical Chemistry, which is given to the single top-performing student in the field. On top of that courseload, Stephanie was a devoted volunteer at two literary nonprofits. Whether she’s volunteering with a national poverty-relief program or working as a program director at a nonprofit focused on career readiness for students from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds, Stephanie puts her whole heart into creating lifelong learners.
In her spare time, Stephanie loves writing stories and novellas—she even volunteers at a nonprofit devoted to preserving transformative fanworks and fannish history. She’s a huge Harry Potter buff as well!