Colby S.

I grew up as the son of two psychotherapists in a quiet commuter town outside New York City in North Jersey, so my childhood was a lot like if The Sopranos had instead been centered on Dr. Melfi’s family and aired on Disney Channel. After high school, I enrolled in NYU’s Presidential Honors Scholars Program and encountered the greatest academic frustration of my life while learning upper-level calculus’s mind-boggling social science applications in my economics coursework. Through diligent self-study and sheer perseverance, I overcame my confusion and frustration–and graduated summa cum laude with multiple honors. When I tutor, I bring in insights from my own experiences in the trenches of academic agony to help my students climb out of whatever hole they’re in and make a battle plan to tackle their biggest weaknesses. When I’m not tutoring, I enjoy cycling, (mostly) vegan cooking, reading about ancient and medieval history, walking around New York City, and hanging out with my dog, Wolfie.

My tutoring experience started in high school when I was asked by my Spanish teacher to tutor some of her students the grade below mine. Later on in high school, I went on to tutor Chinese students in English STEM vocabulary over Zoom and then continued to do ad-hoc tutoring jobs throughout college. Since graduating, I’ve gained 2.5 years’ professional experience tutoring students from kindergarten to college with a focus on middle and high school math and English coursework, all SAT (and ACT) sections, and AP courses including Calculus AB, Macro- and Microeconomics, Statistics, and Spanish Language. I’ve been commended by students and supervisors alike for the clarity of my instruction, and many of my students have seen 200+ point increases on their individual SAT sections.

In my view, learning is like constructing a house: It all starts with a strong foundation. And after years of substandard school instruction due to remote learning and other pandemic-related interruptions, today’s students are building on a shaky base–and by no fault of their own. By accepting–without judgment or shame–that there will be gaps in every student’s knowledge, we can move on together to pinpoint those weaknesses, break them down, and build confidence and competence in their place. My success as a tutor lies in my ability to get students to lean into their frustrations and to trust their own intellectual abilities.