Alexa Barton

Biography

I’ve always been drawn to the hardest questions to answer, especially the ones surrounding human health. I like breaking things down to their most fundamental pieces, then building the answers back up from there. That curiosity led me to Cornell University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology and Behavior.

As a Division I track and field athlete and STEM student, I’ve always believed challenges are best tackled as a team. Mentorship and collaboration are key to unlocking an individuals’ and team’s best performance. I first recognized how much I loved mentoring and teaching as a camp counselor working with kids. My love for teaching grew at Cornell when I served as a peer educator, designing lesson plans, leading weekly classes, creating assignments, guiding discussions, grading work and setting learning goals for my students along the way. Across both roles, what I’ve enjoyed most is helping people lean into their own strengths while developing the tools to tackle any hurdles they are facing, paving the way to mastery and confidence in their own learning style.

At AJ, I’m excited to be teaching Chemistry and Biology, and supporting SAT prep. Biology has always felt personal to me: studying Neurobiology and Behavior meant studying the science of what makes us who we are, from the smallest cell to the behaviors that define us. Chemistry pulls that same lens in even closer, to the elements and reactions underlying not just life, but the physical world as a whole.

These subjects can be intimidating in their scale, their detail, their implications. I felt that same intimidation myself when I first approached them. My goal is to help students find the ways of engaging with material that actually work for them. Learning is never one size fits all, and there’s no wrong way to do it. What matters most to me is helping students discover what works best for them.

Outside of tutoring, I love listening to music, watching movies, going on runs, folding origami, and working through puzzles.