Jonathan Tang

I’ve been a teacher in some way, shape, or form for all my professional life. In my opinion, there aren’t many things more rewarding than helping students learn and building their self-confidence. My passion is for helping others discover not only new knowledge, but how that knowledge is produced.

I was born and raised in Seattle. I was a big reader from a young age and later channeled that energy into studying at Harvard (BA, Social Studies), Columbia (MA, Regional Studies: East Asia), and UC Berkeley (PhD, History). The greatest lesson I received during my education was how to learn new information while retaining a critical distance.

While in school, I chose my majors because I’ve always been fascinated by history and the lives of others. It is an amazing experience to introduce others to stories that are different from their own. Not only is this a way to learn history and build confidence in the subject, but learning about a variety of people’s experiences can be used to teach empathy for others.

As a lecturer at Stanford and UC Berkeley, I enjoyed helping students become more critical thinkers, readers, and writers, and I do the same as a tutor. I value the one-on-one format of tutoring because it is a perfect fit for my teaching style. I stress discussion and empathetic listening as ways for students to broaden their experience and learn to learn. Oftentimes students are too prone to mere memorization and regurgitation; while those skills have their place, I prefer to practice the creative application of information to solving problems.

Though study and research were fun and fulfilling, teaching was always the best part of the job. I enjoyed the benefit of close connections with my instructors in college. I distinctly remember getting praised by a professor during lecture for an insightful comment made on the class’s online forum! I seek to forge the same relationship with my students at AJ.

Since I was born and raised in Seattle, I’m sadly a fan of the two teams I grew up cheering for—the Seahawks and Mariners—and will always cheer for them. I also enjoy losing at Switch Mario Party to my wife and son.