My desire to teach and tutor comes from the appreciation and respect I had for the teachers and tutors I had growing up. They played a significant role in making me who I am and instilling in me a deep love of learning. I see tutoring as an opportunity to give thanks to all those who taught me. 

I was born in India, but my family moved around often when I was young, eventually settling in California. I completed my undergraduate studies at UC San Diego where I majored in biochemistry, and I began my graduate career at San Jose State University where I am working on a master’s in artificial intelligence.

What always blew my mind about biology and chemistry as a student was how closely related the two disciplines were to each other. You can learn a topic like catalysts in chemistry, and then find out how extremely relevant they are in biology when studying enzymes. Seeing the way in which the two subjects propped each other up drew me into the field of biochemistry and all the crazy and awesome reactions and processes that have literally created and maintained life on Earth. My genuine hope is that I can share some of my enthusiasm for these subjects with students so that they can also appreciate what all the figures and formulas actually represent about the world around us!

My experience tutoring began in teaching my younger sister, as it was often up to me to help her with homework and show her the best ways to learn and study. This experience taught me that one of the best ways to check if you’ve learned something is to see if you can teach that topic or idea to someone else. This informs part of my philosophy for teaching: I give students a chance to test themselves and practice beyond just running problems again and again. Understanding a topic means being able to explain it back in their own words using their own ideas to paint the picture. As concepts in science build upon each other, it is critical for students to have a strong foundation of comprehension.

In my free time, I enjoy playing guitar, watching indie movies, trying new foods, and expanding my modest collection of vinyl records and retro video games!