Sven Engvall

Biography

I was born in Fresno, CA, and bounced around through several places in the state before making my home here in the Bay Area. I majored in history with a minor in economics at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and I graduated a year early to jump start my career in education, securing my first teaching job at Paso Robles High School. When I moved to the Bay Area, I taught at Summit Public Schools before deciding to transition to tutoring full-time.

I love teaching and helping students both take ownership for their own learning and explore their passions. I believe in the value of education for its own sake, and I am constantly trying to enrich my own personal knowledge as a way to keep learning. My favorite subject is, and always will be, history, because knowing the past contextualizes the present and allows us to approach the modern world with an appropriate lens. I also harbor a soft spot for English as well and will talk literature all day long if given the chance.

Every student has the potential to grow, and I promise to facilitate that growth through a goal-oriented approach. Whether we’re studying test taking strategies for the SAT and ACT, analyzing historical or literary sources, or crafting an essay, I push my students to think critically both about the material and about their approach to the task at hand. Both collegiate-level literacy and effective studying and test taking skills are so important to students’ future successes, and I enjoy helping them lay the foundation for whatever comes next. I love tutoring 1-on-1 because it gives students a chance to connect and learn on an individual basis, which creates more meaningful, and lasting, comprehension.

When I’m not teaching, I enjoy writing (and recently completed a novella), staying active and talking sports (I’m a big Giants and Raiders fan), reading, playing board games, and watching scary movies.