I am Venezuelan American and have been speaking Spanish since birth. To add onto that I took one year of the highest level of Spanish my high school offered, as well as AP Spanish. After I had taken... all the Spanish courses in my high school, I was able to request to be the AP Spanish Teachers Assistant. Along side this position I was tutoring other students in the school in their intermediate Spanish courses. read more

Hi I’m Dania! Each day I try to get closer to being a more present and wholehearted person. There is no better way to do this, in my experience, than learning. And I don’t just mean the knowledge itse... lf, which is of apparent value, but the process itself. For big things that alter your paradigms, you must humble yourself and the grasp on the world that can feel so inviolable. Small things can do this too, of course, but it takes longer and tends to happen under your nose. Then, there is practical knowledge that alters not just your inventory of facts, but your repertoire of engaging with the world. Just the other day, I learned how to form hooks out of iron rods. Though this seems trivial, these small additions accumulate to make every action so much more deliberate and every interaction so much more meaningful. Excitingly, and I’m sure you already know this, there is no better way to learn than to teach. Not because you must know the information through and through, per se, but because you must be able to reconfigure it in ways you never would have on your own. In reconfiguring knowledge and lessons—retelling a story you already know—you come to ‘know’ it much more deeply and appreciate it much more intensely. Better yet, you appreciate people and learning as a process in itself. This brings me to my “tutoring philosophy” (as you so artfully put it!): Every student is unique, a one-of-a-kind reservoir of experiences and habits, and thus needs and deserves a commensurately unique and tailored learning experience. I’m only 18, but I’ve moved five times—to four different countries (Venezuela, Ukraine, Georgia, and the USA). Lest it be said, I’ve had to learn to adapt to new environments and people! However, growing up, without stability, I learned to revel in adapting itself. I love to learn about new people, different cultures, and how I can fit into them. And, with it all, I love seeing how everything is different, but in so many ways, the same.read more