The FelicityJane Agency

Throughout my time in middle school, I worked with my sister on building a tutoring service for students in all grade levels. I became interested in pursuing a degree in teaching due to all the fun I had tutoring students through our service. During my International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma program in high school, I was required to participate in 300 hours of community service. For my 300 hours, I started my own tutoring service between three schools in my surrounding area. After a few days I was contacted by 13 parents regarding my General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) math prep tutoring service. After seven weeks of classes, 5 days a week, I was anxious to see how my students performed in the GCSE math section.

Having worked hand-in-hand with both the parents and teachers, I was contacted by the school board for a meeting over lunch. At first I was thinking they were going to sit me down and tell me how awful everyone who worked with me did, ending me in huge trouble with my IB diploma. To my surprise, when I walked into the conference room, all the parents of my students were sitting patiently. At that point I was thinking that everyone who I tutored didn’t pass the math section at all. After speaking with the parents, I figured out that none of them had received the scores for their children’s tests yet. The meeting began and the first sentence and the board member said, “Kenji could you please join me up here?” It was to my surprise that the students who I tutored for the exam received the highest scores out of their class also landing them within the top 2 percent of the British national average.

Now you may be thinking, what does this have to do with college? Well, considering that I had done this community service because I loved math and tutoring I extended it to my college classes. After having taken Dr. Fidler’s class on sports physics, I asked if I could assist in sessions with students and offer tutoring for students who wanted help. He was really open to allowing me offer assistance, particularly with lab group write-ups. Each semester I met with lab groups once a week, whereby I helped with format, compilation, data analysis and design. During exam periods, I offered study groups for students who had questions or just needed a little more help with specific functions within physics. After each exam, the students I had worked with had either emailed me or spoke to me in passing, exclaiming how well they did from my help. A majority of the students I worked with scored within the high 80’s and low 90’s.

Being part of Wheelock has given me the opportunity to pursue my passion for tutoring. If I had attended a larger school I might not have been able to do all the interpersonal activities that I have participated in these past 2 years. On top of my love for teaching, I have a personal passion for helping others on a day-to-day basis, which Wheelock has enabled me to do. Through the years I would like to extend my services beyond just Wheelock.