Instruction

Teaching, driven by impact.

Teaching has become one of the parts of college I have enjoyed most. Whether I am helping with organic chemistry or human physiology, I like figuring out where someone is getting stuck and finding a way to explain the same idea more clearly. It has also made me much more aware of how differently people learn.

Organic Chemistry

Undergraduate Learning Assistant | 4 quarters

Over four quarters, I have supported students through the full three-course organic chemistry sequence. Because I am not much older than the students I help, I have been able to watch them grow from struggling with their first mechanisms to trusting me with advanced problems and review-session questions. During office hours and review sessions, I work through mechanisms, synthesis problems, and other difficult concepts with students. My favorite part is seeing someone come in completely stuck and eventually reach the point where the reasoning starts to make sense. Teaching for several quarters has also shown me how differently people learn and has pushed me to find multiple ways of explaining the same idea.

Human Physiology

Recent teaching experience

Teaching physiology has given me the chance to work with a subject that connects much more directly to medicine. In this role I taught actual course sections, contributed to the test-writing process, and proctored exams. That involvement gave me strong engagement with both the material and the professor, and it helped me see how a course is built from the instructor side. I enjoy helping students understand how smaller cellular and molecular processes connect to what happens across an entire organ system. Like with organic chemistry, I try to focus on why something happens rather than having students memorize isolated facts. Although this is a newer teaching experience for me, it has reinforced how much I enjoy explaining science and helping other students become more confident with difficult material.