Personal Rewarding Educational Experience: One educational experience that was rewarding was working with one of my Master’s thesis students on a cave research project. We had to identify the best way to sample the water entering the cave and within the cave, without any direct observable pathways on the surface. This was an ideal teaching opportunity for me because it required creative, hands-on work with my student. As a geologist, I enjoyed spending 6+ hours in the cold cave, crawling through mud carrying water samples on my back. It was also very rewarding to see my student complete the project and be hired by the US Geological Survey upon graduation.
Why I Tutor: I love tutoring because of the relationships I build with my students. I enjoy finding solutions to each student’s individual learning challenges–whether it means learning to read calculus upside down alongside my student with dyslexia or finding out why a student’s family issues are inhibiting their success. I get a lot of joy out of celebrating successes with my students, and have been known to cry when seeing a struggling student’s A-and-B report cart. My students are an important part of my life, and I am still in contact with many of my former students.
Favorite Quote:
“All those simple thoughts all those peaceful dreams Share the space with a hard worked, hard worked day But it’s the little things, the little things not expectation That make life worth living, worth living.” ― J.J. Grey and Mofro, “The Sun is Shining Down”
Fun Facts:
During high school and college, I worked as a day care teacher for infants and toddlers for nearly 7 years. Many of these children are starting families of their own now!
I was on a soil judging team (Just in case you don’t know what ‘soil judging’ entails, Soil judging evaluates how well a particular soil science student describes soil features relative to characterizations by experts).
I have been 4 granted US patents, 6+ US Patent applications, and numerous world patents in the fields of nanotechnology, engineering, and oil industry applications. I enjoy finding solutions to problems no matter how technical or specific the field might be.
Interests: I like to spend time sewing pillows, purses, and clothing items. Many of the items I sew are used in auctions to raise money for those in need. I also enjoy doing volunteer work for a variety of organizations and raising money for the Houston Area Women’s Center (Race Against Violence).
Biography: I have wanted to teach in some form since I was old enough to carry a chalkboard. I would try to get anyone to play school with me, especially math. I learned math mostly from my Dad and through workbooks he would buy me when I was little. I could see how he would use it to build and decorate houses. I always saw math as required for making and doing most anything. My first tutoring job was as a 4th grader. I tutored a friend’s mom to help her pass her GED. I have loved learning for as long as I can remember and have been teaching in various forms (teaching, tutoring, mentoring) over the last nearly 30 years. Prior to coming to Houston, I worked as an Assistant Professor teaching geology, environmental geology, sedimentology, and environmental geochemistry (undergraduate and graduate level) course. After working in the oil industry for several years, I really felt like something was missing, the connection with students and teaching. The pull to get back to my first love, teaching and working with students, was strong. I started tutoring not long after I left industry and have been enjoying myself since. I have always had a personal commitment to help my students succeed. Whether as a teaching assistant and math tutor in undergraduate, lab teaching assistant in graduate school, teaching Upward Bound, serving as a lab mentor, or as a professor, I have been driven to help my students reach their full potential. The fact that many of my students still keep in touch with me, in some cases decades later, has proven that those relationships I built then are ones the students (and I) value further down the road.
Future Goals: My future goals involve continuing my volunteer work and improving my effectiveness as a tutor by meeting students where their interest lie (writing sets of math problems all about baseball to get a student invested, printing musical instruments out on graph paper to convince a musician of the importance of lines and curves…).
With my volunteer work, I hope to make STEM education more accessible to everyone, especially women. I will keep working on both of these goals in order to benefit the communities where I reside and work.
Educational Background:
B.S. in Natural Resources Management from the University of Tennessee (Martin)
B.S. in Geology from the University of Tennessee (Martin)
M.S. in Geology from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville)
Ph.D. in Geology (Geochemistry emphasis) from the University of California (Davis)