PrepNow Tutor - Brian M.
Brian earned his bachelor's in economics and English from the University of Michigan with a four-year full-tuition scholarship, the Scholar Recognition Award. Experience tutoring, including for AP chemistry, inspired him to consider teaching, but he decided to first broaden his horizons with private-sector experience in marketing.
For two years following graduation, Brian worked in digital marketing, including Web development. He then decided to pursue what he calls "my greatest personal passion": poetry. "I enrolled in an MFA program in part because it would provide me with the opportunity to be an instructor," he says. While earning his MFA in poetry from Columbia College, Chicago, Brian worked for two years as an adjunct professor teaching first-year writing and rhetoric.
"The thing I love most about teaching is the rush of fulfillment I get from the experience of getting to know a student and helping them develop their own understanding and aptitude for the subject at hand," he says.
Brian believes the keys to effective teaching or tutoring are engagement and the reduction of anxiety. In order to engage students, Brian knows he must persuade them both that the subject matter is important and that he can help them perform at their peak potential in the subject. He works to develop student trust through strong relationships, making a human connection. He also believes one of the most important ways he can contribute meaningfully to the student's success is in the form of the reduction of anxiety. "Anxious writers are sub-optimal writers, anxious math students are sub-optimal math students," he says. "By giving students effective strategies or heuristics for the problems at hand, instructors can untie the knots that hold students back from progress. These include the failed loops of fear responses and incorrect approaches to a given problem. Ultimately, this allows students to put themselves on an iterative process toward success, which is the most sustainable path toward reaching any student's full potential even past the time of working with the instructor."
Brian describes himself as "a perpetually curious person who nurtures a broad range of interests." He says, "I am committed to sharing that attitude with others, and through that commitment I work to live an engaging, fulfilling life."
In high school, Brian ran track and cross-country, and also participated in Quiz Bowl, the National Honors Society, and Key Club. These days, he enjoy sports, especially the teams of the University of Michigan and Arsenal Football Club, a soccer team in North London. Of course, he loves literature, especially poetry, and last year wrote his first novel!
