Chief Sealth Tutor Spotlights
Seattle MESA’s Tutoring Program prides itself in recruiting some of the best and brightest University of Washington students to provide tutoring to local high school and middle school students. You can read about the tutors that serve Chief Sealth International High School. Tutors, we salute you!
Grade: Sophomore
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California
Major: Mechanical Engineering
What school do you serve? Chief Sealth
How long have you been with MESA? This is my second quarter with MESA
Hobby/Interest: Plays Trombone, Dental school volunteering (translator)
Why did you decide to tutor?
I received the services of a tutor when I was little and by becoming a tutor, it’d be a good way to give back
What made you choose MESA?
I was interested in MESA due to the advertising posters about tutoring
What is a challenge(s) you faced when tutoring?
Metacognition can be a challenge. To work around it, I take things slow so that I may efficiently and effectively demonstrate metacognition to the students.
Dream, goal in life OR interesting fact about yourself:
I want to be like Kyle (another tutor) when I grow up. Just kidding. My dream is to earn a Ph. D in engineering. I want to also be able to fund my family’s education.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Shape-shifting. It’s pretty cool to transform into anything.
Grade: Senior
Hometown: Mukilteo, Washington. I was born in San Francisco.
Major: Oceanography and ecology
What school do you serve? Chief Sealth
How long have you been with MESA? This is my third quarter with MESA
Hobby/Interest: I love to watch the show Chopped. I also love to do field ecology.
Why did you decide to tutor?
I decided to tutor because I wanted to give back in general.
What made you choose MESA?
I chose MESA because I heard tutoring with MESA would be good for the path on becoming a teacher in case I ever wanted to. I came back to MESA because I loved tutoring with MESA.
What is a challenge(s) you faced when tutoring?
Sometimes it’s hard to remember old concepts in math as well as certain terms that I’m not familiar with. To get past this challenge, I ask the teacher for help because there’s nothing wrong with asking for help.
Dream, goal in life OR interesting fact about yourself:
My goal in life is to get a Ph. D in ecology. An interesting fact about me is that I worked on Mt. Rainer over the summer.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Mimicry. That way I could be good at singing and mimic any person.
Grade: Second year grad school
Hometown: Walla Walla
Major: Electrical Engineering
What school do you serve? Chief Sealth
How long have you been with MESA? This is my second quarter with MESA
Hobby/Interest: Cooking
Why did you decide to tutor?
I think it’s easy to get selfish as a student, getting wrapped up in coursework. So it’s important to be a tutor and help while giving back to schools.
What made you choose MESA?
A friend did it last year and only had good things to say about MESA.
What is a challenge(s) you faced when tutoring?
It can be hard to connect to students with a different background. So it can be difficult to understand them at a certain level. To bypass this, it’s important for the tutor to plan ahead and provide a warm environment for the student which in turn helps them open up to you. This provides a gateway to connect with the student.
Dream, goal in life OR interesting fact about yourself:
My goal in life is to find a way to serve the community while also serving my own interest.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Time control. It’s a lot of super powers wrapped into one. Never have to worry about time.
Thanks to Peter Le, Seattle MESA’s Lead Tutor, for writing this tutor spotlight. He also tutors at Chief Sealth International High School. See his tutor spotlight PETER LE here.