What I like about IYE is that all the tutors are professionals and not high school or college students trained in cookie-cutter tutoring. We have a lot of leeway to personalize the instruction to each student. All of our tutors have a specialty but are also more than competent to teach all the areas we cover. The owner is very particular in hiring only intelligent, well-trained instructors whom he would trust alone with his own child. This is one of the factors that make us different and eminently better than other tutoring centers.
I teach research and writing for the History Department at San Jose State University. While I get to teach the use of primary sources and thesis-driven argument, I never get to teach literature, which is one of my loves. I have a BA in English Literature and have studied and read a good deal of Latin, Greek, German, French, and Sanskrit literature in the original languages. Getting to spend one day a week teaching Homer or Beowulf or Donne is a joy. I get to pass along my love of poetry and classical literature to the next generation.
The main reason I continue to work at IYE after five plus years is that I fall in love with my students. It is like having a handful of nieces and nephews that I get to see once a week. I watch and help them evolve into adults. Once I have taught a student for several months, we form a relationship. I am not a parent, not a friend, not a relative, and not a teacher. I am, in many ways, all of those with none of the negatives attached to them. I am a non-threatening adult who will listen to them and make them the center of my universe for an hour each week. I am their personal cheerleader, taskmaster, and coach all in one.
