Eric Tran

I was born and raised in San Jose, California. After attending a private elementary school, I received my middle and high school education in the public school system of San Jose Unified School District. I credit my lifelong passion for STEM to the 20-minute animal videos that were the only VHS tapes my parents approved to check out from the local library. During university, I discovered my passion for both physics and education, leading me to major and minor in those subjects, respectively.

I’ve always held a deep love for sharing my knowledge with others, starting with my first job in high school as an instructor at my taekwondo school. I began to treasure the “lightbulb” moments of seeing everything click into place for the young students, allowing them to execute their martial arts techniques well. While in university, I tutored high school math as well as my peers in my college physics courses. Upon graduating college, I did a year of service with AmeriCorps, where I worked to improve educational equity in under-served communities.

My experience in AmeriCorps has greatly shaped my approach to teaching. I aim to be a compassionate, patient, and mindful educator who treats everyone he works with as their own unique and valuable individual. As a tutor, I focus on developing a growth mindset to foster academic confidence. By highlighting the things the student is successful at and building off those positives, I aim for my student to not only learn, but also enjoy the learning process and be comfortable tackling challenging problems.

In my spare time, I continue to practice martial arts, read fantasy and sci-fi novels, and play with my cat, Sesame.