"I'm Stephen! I graduated from the University of Miami with my PhD in 2014 and since then have taught history at the university level. My favorite part of teaching is getting to know my students and being part of their intellectual growth. I love helping students understand increasingly difficult concepts and feeling the almost audible "click" of the light bulb when it all comes together. A gratifying experience for both student and teacher! Tutoring is the most effective way to establish an effective student-teacher relationship. My primary strategy is to find out what you are hoping to gain or learn from our sessions and devise approaches to get there. If you are not entirely sure what your desired outcomes are yet, we can figure that out together! Learning is its own reward.

For content, my specialty is European History. I have become a sort of jack-of-all-trades, also teaching Global History, American History, and Ancient History (especially Greece and Rome) at the university level. While content matters, my primary teaching method prioritizes bigger historical questions and approaches. Using these larger concepts to frame the content (and showing “why it matters”) develops critical soft skills, including analysis, comparison, argument, reading, writing, and empathy. It also helps with retention of those pesky details for anyone test prepping.

My favorite teaching area right now is writing. As I tell my students, specifics about the Reformation may not be directly relevant to your future career, but the writing skills you develop with me will be. Writing skills are transferable between classes and into the workplace. I spend significant time going through papers, editing them for organization, clarity, grammar, style, readability, and everything in between. It is a joy seeing writing ability improve over time as students put into practice the strategies and skills we have developed together. Please reach out with any questions or to schedule a session!" less...