"I'm Jade! I am currently on a gap year from Harvard College to teach English Language Arts (ELA) to students at home and abroad. In previous summers, I have tutored rising eighth-graders for both the ELA and Math sections of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) on a one-on-one basis. But my most rewarding experience is leading my high school's entirely student-run Local Outreach Tutoring program for disadvantaged seventh- and eighth-graders to prepare for the SHSAT. In addition to helping plan the trajectory of the program, I taught ELA to large classes and small groups of students, starting as enrichment before turning to rigorous test preparation. I dedicated two years of my high school career to this program, in which time it expanded to 50 students from a dozen local middle schools.

As a creative writer, I love sharing the beauty of words with the students whom I tutor. I understand how reading comprehension and grammar can be confusing and exhausting topics, but I am determined to find each student's appreciation of the material. More importantly, I understand from my own education at a specialized high school, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College, that these schools are unparalleled in NYC's public school system. The rigor of the curricula and passion of the teachers changes students' trajectories. I want to uplift intelligent and capable students into specialized high schools, which is why I give equal attention to preparing for the Math section of the test.

Since joining my school's Local Outreach Tutoring program, five of my students have been admitted to my high school alone. In addition to teaching them in back-to-back classes, I planned original lessons and activities in reading comprehension and grammar. I also accumulated a wide array of SHSAT resources, including practice passages, practice tests, and lists of test-taking strategies.

I received a 770 on the SAT Reading portion, for which I self-studied. I am available to tutor for the SAT Reading, as well as" less...