I've taught English to students in grades 9-12.

I have always loved words. In second grade, I started to write my first book. I typed two pages of science fiction and gave up, but I never lost my desire to be a writer. As a high school student, I e... mbraced poetry and fiction and joined the student literary magazine as a contributor and editor. By the time I started college, I found writing fun and easy, a way to express myself and a way to shape my life. When I graduated from Middlebury, I became a teacher in an environmental studies program for 11th graders called Chewonki’s Maine Coast Semester. There, I learned how to bring out the best from students as they became authors of not only essays, but of their lives. I came to see that language was a vehicle for students to share how they understand the world and what makes them unique. I’ve found that with coaching and support, every student can find their voice and describe what they love. Conveying interests and passions authentically makes a student jump out in a class and on college applications, too. Because I’ve worked with thousands of young people from India to Indiana, I know that there is no single path that colleges expect kids to tread. Instead, schools and universities and their teachers and professors want to read about real people with genuine lives, ideas, and pursuits. Helping students embrace the power of words and convey who they are is my calling and my life’s work.read more