Ramon Santos

I was born in the Philippines and raised in the East Bay, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. I graduated from Mount Eden High School in Hayward, after which I spent my next five years pursuing a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After gaining some experience as a professional engineer, I now dedicate myself to my true passion of sharing knowledge and helping students succeed. It is a long-term goal of mine to pursue a Ph.D. and be a university professor.

My tutoring career began unofficially in high school, where I built a favorable reputation among my peers by agreeing to lead free study groups for the AP Calculus class and by tutoring a student one-on-one for the AP Calculus AB exam during my senior year.

Throughout college, I held a part-time job for Cal Poly’s Study Session program, in which I led biweekly study groups for math, physics, and some undergraduate engineering courses. Through Study Session I assisted over 1,000 wonderful students, some of which are still my friends today. During grad school, I taught an undergraduate class in mechanics of materials, a second-year civil engineering course on the physics behind bending and breaking solid materials

In my role as a tutor in the Palo Alto office, I help students master math and physics through all levels. Math and physics have always been my favorite subjects, and it is my pleasure to proliferate knowledge and inspire confidence in younger students.

I take immense pride in being a resource for my students, not just academically but also as a mentor, if desired, for things like planning classes, discussing careers, and general life advice. Throughout my time as a Study Session leader, I helped countless students optimize their course loads to maximize their degree progress, and I especially liked talking to incoming freshmen about fun upper-division classes and other opportunities they had to look forward to.

Nothing is more gratifying to me than being a positive influence on my students. It’s this gratification that has made tutoring and teaching never feel so much like “work” as my time spent in industry.

When I’m not tutoring, I’m a full-time nerd. I spend much of my time playing video games or tabletop games with my friends. I’ve also made a hobby of building PCs, which started a couple of years ago when I used my first internship paycheck to build myself a nice gaming computer. I do enjoy playing the drums, but unfortunately my third-floor apartment prevents me from doing so.