Alexej

Tutoring Experience

I have years of experience in high school tutoring and education, and have a strong background in studying the French language.

In my role as a college admissions consultant, I have worked with students to build a strategic list of potential schools and prepare strategies for the course of the application process. In terms of initial preparation, I have taught skills for writing effective resumes and personal statements to best represent students’ accomplishments and experience. I have offered step-by-step counselling for planning, refining and proofreading admissions essays. Beyond applications themselves, I have experience with teaching interviewing skills and conducting mock interviews, and have helped guide students in choosing a college, post-admissions. Clients in the past have been accepted to schools such as Wesleyan, Middlebury, Cornell, Brown, Columbia, and Yale.

Clients have received scholarships up to and including “full rides.” I am invested in guiding students through the entire course of this process, and truly enjoy helping students prepare for this exciting next stage of their lives.

In terms of other teaching experience, I have served as a private school educator in debate; in this position I worked with students to build skills in academic research and writing, crafting logical and organized arguments, and communicating information in a strategic and organized manner.

I have studied French for eight years, and am now completing a minor in French Language & Culture. I have strong practical experience with French skills, having served as a translator of academic professors and students. I have a passion for French literature and music, and I am excited to share my love for the language with my students.

Tutoring Approach

My approach to college counselling is to view college applications as existing in stages, working to prepare students to be successful applicants at each step of the process.

One of the most difficult stages of applications is choosing a list of potential schools. I begin by evaluating students’ grades, test scores, academic plans, and environmental preferences to help students build a strategic list, ranging from “safety” to “reach” schools. For the Common or Coalition application and school-specific essays, I aid students in developing essay topics targeted towards particular features of the school and aspects of the student’s personality and interests that they most wish to highlight. Essay work will continue into brainstorming and drafting the content of the essay, and crafting a unique and engaging narrative. After essays are completed, I offer proofreading for grammar and syntax.

Once applications are submitted, I work with students to prepare for interviews, drawing from my experience in teaching rhetoric skills as a debate coach to share techniques for confidently and strategically representing oneself to interviewers. I conduct mock interviews with students, allowing them to put these skills into practice. Post-admissions, I help students weigh their options, and decide on the school that is best for them.

I believe that language tutoring ought to be done from both theoretical and practical approaches. Of course, formal knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures is essential; I review concepts with students, ask them to complete practice exercises, and offer explanations as to why each answer is correct or incorrect to reinforce the material. However, French is not simply grammar in isolation. As a linguistics student, I know the importance of speaking and engaging with the language in building mastery. I have training in “Total Physical Response” language pedagogy, in which language skills are taught through interactive methods. I actively speak with students in French, employing concepts in need of practice, to help them internalize linguistic structures and become more comfortable with listening and responding to spoken French.