Fun Facts

I am an active martial arts student and have practiced Judo, Hapkido, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu(BJJ), Aikido, Muay Thai and general MMA skills over the past 3 months. In the past, I was a Marine Corps Martial Arts Program trainer and trained in Haganah using the F.I.G.H.T. system originating in Israel. Other active hobbies of mine include table top roleplaying games and camping. I have a passion for writing and storytelling that I enjoy sharing with others in the games that I play.

About Me

I am a portland-state-university">Portland State University graduate with a BA in Applied Linguistics and an ESL teaching (TESL) certificate. I am teaching and portland">tutoring in Portland until the end of August. Afterwards, I'll be sailing as I make a several year long voyage from the United States to Australia, Asia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean region and up to northern Europe. I plan to teach English abroad as I travel before, perhaps, settling down to attend graduate school in Europe.

Experience

While in the military(2004-2011), I tutored other students in college-level Arabic courses, including Modern Standard Arabic, middle eastern history and Arab culture. When I returned to college for the sciences(2009-2012), I tutored college-level students in pre-calculus, organismal biology and geology. I also volunteered with college-bound high students, portland">tutoring the same topics, as well as history, geography and English. I have also tutored ESL while attending PSU.(2014-2015)

Approach

As a child I excelled in school, attending gifted student programs in elementary, left the 7th grade mid-year to attend high school (9th grade in my region) and left high school after the 10th grade to go to college. During my early education, I struggled with standardization and understand that students think in a variety of ways. The way a student learns isn't always compatible with a teacher's or textbook's approach. Variety and practicality are often much better options for these students.