Please write an essay (no longer than 1 page) indicating why you would like to be a Residential Programs Tutor,

and how your past experiences have prepared you for the position.

From an early age, I was privileged to go to Kumon, a learning center for children ranging from elementary to high school age. I was encouraged to try and become a grader/tutor there in middle school. This was my first experience being employed as a tutor. Due to school constraints in high school, I discontinued working at Kumon after a year and a half, but I took away from the employment the satisfying experience of helping others learn and learning with them. During high school, I re-scratched the surface of this often, helping my peers in classes and working together on homework sets. However, I never had the time and energy to pursue actual tutoring due to coursework and extracurriculars, mainly cross country/distance running. I do not regret putting time into distance running. It built a character of not just giving your all, but also managing it. I was very injury prone, but also an above average, passionate runner. As such, I had put in immense scrutiny in all the different facets of training and health. This has translated to me having very open minded approach on things: theres never one way, there are always alternatives and nuances to be considered. This largely exists in the beauty of learning academic material, too, and I am eager to further explore this with other students. Now at Cal, I am focused on academics, in which I can union my desire to teach along with my being here at school. A career goal of mine is to become a professor because of the work they do research and especially teaching. Being a student here at Cal has strengthened this, seeing the caliber of graduate student instructors and professors at the university. Many of them are role models in some way for me. The way they illuminate concepts and theories always excites me in school so much that I often try to re-illustrate them to friends. Even if my friends arent math or physics inclined, I still try my best to explain. As a tutor, I would like to create these moments of understanding for students, sometimes with my own style too if it augments the standard methods. I thoroughly enjoy explaining the concepts learned in technical classes, and as well, revisiting them when doing so. I deeply enjoy tutoring in its entirety. It is intertwined with my personality and as well with what I am interested in for a career. I hope I have the qualities and qualifications that are desired for this tutoring position. Thank you for considering me for the position.