How is Tutoring Like Coaching?

We were inspired by a recent article in The New Yorker, in which Atul Gawande, a surgeon, decides to improve his performance in the operating room. He enlists the help of a colleague to observe him during surgery and act as a coach. I asked some of our tutors: How is tutoring like coaching? 


I feel like tutoring is a combination of coaching and teaching. When you're tutoring a student, you begin by teaching content: you either teach the student a new concept, or review something they might have already covered at school. 

Then coaching comes in. You will give the student problems they struggle with, but as the coach you have to sit back and allow them to struggle so they can learn the concept. Think about athletic coaches, like Andy Roddick's tennis coach. Do you think when Andy is at practice and struggles or makes a mistake, his coach jumps in and shows him how to do it? No. He might verbally give him tips, but he never jumps in, takes the racket, and shows him exactly how to do it. 

Tutoring is the same. We need to give students a chance before we jump in and help. They need to learn independence and build confidence because when they sit down to take a test and struggle with a problem, we won't be there to jump in and help them. They need to show confidence in themselves and their knowledge so they can tackle the challenging problems they come across.

-Lauren F.

After a tutoring session, I want my student to feel like they learned something new, useful and relevant. I want them to feel energized and excited about what they learned. If they get frustrated, I want them to know that if they keep working at it, they WILL eventually "get" it and succeed. I don't want to give the student all the answers or be their crutch. I want to teach them strategies and ways to approach their work that will ultimately help them be successful when I'm not there. 

Similarly, as a coach, you want to give your players the strategies, practice and skills to be strong players. You want your players to love the game, but you also don't want them to give up when things get tough. You know you can't play a game for a player - you need to teach them how to successfully play the game on their own.

-Alyssa D.

A coach is a fundamental to the success of a sports team. They help organize the team, encourage and motivate the players, and create systems and strategies to help them succeed. An academic tutor is very similar. Instead of helping with a sport, a tutor helps students succeed in school. An outside person providing students with strategies, encouragement, and organization when necessary can really help them succeed! When you think about sports coaches, there isn't a question in your mind about how much they help. Why would it be any different for academics? 

-Marianne C.

Tutor Spotlight: Brandon Glover

Carol Dweck’s book Mindset lays out some interesting ideas about the way we perceive success and failure. She says that we can have either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, when we fail at something, it means that we ourselves are failures. Clearly this idea is not conducive to learning and performing at a high level. In a growth mindset, however, failure is simply an opportunity to learn, grow, and be better in the future.

I’m tutoring a 9^th grader right now in executive functioning, incorporating Dweck’s Mindset principles. Since beginning work on the Mindset curriculum, my student has made great strides in preparing for tests, advocating for himself and asking for help from teachers and other students. He now knows that when he succeeds, he should celebrate his success and move on to the next challenge. When he fails, he knows now to dissociate himself from the failure so that he may objectively examine his mistakes and correct them in the future. After all, did Michael Jordan make every shot he took? Of course not! He had to fail in order to learn from his mistakes and correct them. 

Basketball has been a really great access point for my student to absorb the Mindset principles. He loves basketball, and his favorite team is the North Carolina Tar Heels. I asked if he thought he could get there, and though he replied yes, I could sense some doubt on his part. We then proceeded to draw a sort of goal tree. At the top of the tree was the goal of making the team at North Carolina. We then drew branches to show what he would need to do to get there: which skills and sub-skills he would have to develop both academically and athletically. Completing that exercise helped him break down a larger goal into more manageable tasks. It’s no longer a matter of being good enough to make the team – it’s about working as hard as possible to achieve a goal.

The Mindset curriculum is an excellent tool for students because it shows them that what they do wrong does not define them. They can change their opinions and propel themselves forward in school and in life if they equip themselves with the proper mindset.

Tutor Spotlight: Katherine Jacob

The first thing I do when I sit down with my students is make a to-do list for the session.  Do they need to come up with a study plan for finals?  Are there any long-term projects we should start working on?  Is there homework due tomorrow that’s confusing?  We decide together which tasks are top priority and then get to work.

This exercise was always a little interesting with one of my students whenever she had a test or quiz coming up.  She was perfectly content to study by glancing at the material during her drive to school the day of the test.  Every time she mentioned a test and I suggested studying for it, she would only grudgingly agree.  Even when she finally accepted that studying could be done in advance, she would insist that she did just fine on tests by re-reading the material rather than being quizzed on it.  For the first two months of the school year, we had the same discussion every time there was a test or quiz—and each time she got one of those tests or quizzes back, I was sure to point out that she did much better when she was quizzed on material.  Nevertheless, she didn’t seem swayed.

In one session last month, I sat down to make my to-do list with her as usual.

“Do you have any tests or quizzes in the next week?”

“I have a French quiz tomorrow.”

“How do you feel about the material?”  Oh boy, I figured.  Here comes the same old discussion.

“Can you quiz me on it?” 

Could I?  Was she serious? I decided not to dance around the room, but I said enthusiastically, “Of course I can quiz you on it!  I’m so glad you asked!”

These small successes in tutoring are often the most memorable moments.  My student’s question could’ve been completely insignificant to anyone who didn’t know her.  However, not only did this question show me that she had started to rethink her ideas about studying, simply asking it showed me that she was taking the initiative with her own education!

Words that make us smile!

It's almost to Thanksgiving and what are we thankful for? These sweet words from parents that make us smile! We know we have a truly wonderful group of tutors, and it's nice to hear that parents agree!


Here's what a parent has to say about her son's recent work with Michael D.:

"I can't thank you enough for  working with our son -- but, perhaps more importantly, for inspiring him to work to reach his goals. He never once complained about the work -- and I credit that to your establishing a good relationship with him right from the start. Your working sessions have given him much more than test taking skills -- they gave him confidence and a way to approach a difficult task. These are life skills that everyone hopes their child will obtain. We thank you for the assist!"

Another parent had an equally positive reaction to Michael M.:

"We have been extremely happy with Michael's work with our son.  Our goal was to get him through the end of last year and into his high school schedule.  I feel Michael's work and encouragement have been invaluable in bridging that transition both in academics and executive functioning skills.  I'm happy to say that our son is doing very well and has really settled into his classes/studies easily, currently maintaining a 4.0! We are so glad we discovered your group and that it could really meet the specific needs of our son.  Every student has different struggles and we are grateful that the focus was really on what he needed and not just a set tutoring curriculum.  We have already recommended your group to some friends and will continue to do so if we hear of other students who need help.  Thanks so much for your help in all of this and for Michael's warm, encouraging style which has helped our son grow in his self-confidence as well as his academic abilities!"

Here's what a happy mom had to say about her son's work with Lauren F.:

"I just wanted to tell you that I am so very grateful for everything that Lauren has done with and for our son.  She has been incredibly patient, caring, persistent and very enthusiastic the entire time he worked with her.  Who would have ever guessed that he would increase his composite score by 8 points from his first practice test?  She is a wonderful employee and a great representative of your company and its ideals/practices.  I have told you this before, but I would be happy to be a reference for Lauren and for Nurturing Wisdom ANYTIME."

Motivation, Action, Reflection

How do you help an unmotivated student?

First, it can help to unpack the label of "unmotivated." Most of us feel unmotivated or reluctant toward a task at one time or another. Instead of overt labeling, it's usually helpful to talk with students directly about the specific times they feel least motivated.  When given the chance, most students can articulate reasons why they don't want to do a particular task, which can help them address a roadblock to performance.

Second, my personal understanding of motivation is stolen directly from Nike: Just Do It.  Many of us believe that motivation comes from thinking or feeling a certain way toward a task ("I'll do it just as soon as I feel eager to do it"), but that's not how motivation works. Motivation is fueled by action. In the context of tutoring, getting a student working on something right away and then reflecting on that action can help him or her understand this concept.  That self-reflection after action is key to reinforcing both the student's behavior and his/her confidence in the task.


-Kristi Harreld

How do you engage a shy student?

We encounter all kinds of students at Nurturing Wisdom, and we do our very best to fulfill the needs of each one. As tutors, we love to see our students engaged, having fun and learning. Sometimes, when a student is very shy, we have to work a bit harder to break them out of their shell. We need to know that they're comfortable enough with us to ask questions, and that they're having fun too! I asked a few of our experienced tutors the following question:

How to you engage a very shy student?

"With a shy student, making a personal connection is key. In the first session, I probably spend more time getting to know a shy student than I would for an outgoing student, because they are less likely to offer information on their own. Usually, after chatting for a few minutes, they will tell you something personal about their lives - their favorite hobby, what they do after school, what they like to read, etc. Then I can respond to that ("I also love those books!" or "I didn't play that sport, but I played...") and we can go on from there. It is worth spending the extra few minutes to make that connection, because forming a bond with a shy student is key to their ultimate ability to open up and work with you."
-Laura Kurtycz


"Working with a shy student can be challenging at first. I am a very bubbly, outgoing person, so I have to make sure my personality isn't overwhelming. What I do is find out what they are interested in. Talk to them about sports, shopping, vacations, etc. I also like to make myself look like a fool. I tell stupid jokes to try to make them laugh, and really just show them that I am a person too. I have also talked about how I was shy in grade school and the beginning of high school. Then, I decided that I should just be myself and I wasn't trying to impress anyone. This is a very difficult task, but hearing it from someone who went through it seems to help."
-Lauren Feldmann


"I try to find out what the student is passionate about or knowledgeable on, and I ask him/her questions about that. (I also try to avoid yes/no questions!) It's usually easier for people to open up and talk about things that they love, and these little conversations are part of how the all-important rapport is built between me and my students.

This is why I really value the initial meetings that directors have with students and families before they start tutoring. Not only is the information helpful for the directors to match students, but it's also wonderful as a tutor to have an idea of how to connect with a student and how to teach them effectively, all before I walk into the first session."

-Sara McGuinn

Tutor Spotlight: Brian Pyle

Brian has been tutoring with Nurturing Wisdom for over a year. He has a degree in psychology from Purdue and is currently finishing his master's in secondary education at DePaul. He is energetic, engaging and eager to help his students succeed!

The summer before high school, my parents decided that I needed tutoring for my organizational skills, or lack thereof. I had always been a decent student, but my lack of organization and study skills kept me from attaining the level of scholarship that I was capable of. Of course now I fully realize this, but back then I didn’t want to hear it. I remember being angry with my parents about tutoring, and not having the best attitude walking into my first session. When I actually met my tutor, it turned out that we had a lot of the same interests: sports, guitar, sketching and video games, just to name a few. I realized that my tutor was actually a cool guy, as opposed to the image I had built up in my head. I had never had a favorite teacher, or even one that I would approach before or after class, but in 5 minutes my tutor shattered my view of educators. He definitely had a hand in helping me decide that I wanted to pursue education as a career.

When I look back at how and why this tutor had such an impact on me, I realize that while the content he was teaching me was valuable, it was his attitude and openness that made him so memorable. Having that conversation with me let me know that this experience would be different. It showed me that I would be the focal point, and that my tutor genuinely cared about how I performed and whether I fully understood something.

Fast forward to today. I have been with Nurturing Wisdom for just over a year, and by far my favorite part of my journey with any student is the first session. I love breaking the ice with a student and letting them know that I am interested in their interests. I think that letting my students see me as a person instead of a just a tutor helps, which is why I take a vested interest in what they are doing outside of tutoring as well. Whether it’s a Boy Scout trip, football game, family vacation or a job, letting a student know that you are invested in them helps to build that student/tutor relationship. This approach led me to a career in education, and I look forward to continuing to have these rewarding experiences.

Achieving the Impossible, pt. 2

In Lauren's last post, she wrote about the amazing effect students can have on tutors' lives. Here, Lauren gives another example of a student whose life she changed, who also changed her.

Every student I encounter teaches me something about myself and life. It is important to erase the stereotype that tutors change students only. This is a two way street. Every situation you encounter will teach you something and it is important to embrace these learning experiences to become a better teacher and person.

Enter Andrew. Andrew was a sophomore who needed tutoring for chemistry. Andrew is this adorable, shy guy who just makes your heart melt. He won’t ask questions in class, and he doesn’t raise his hand to answer questions. He’s that guy who wants to be invisible to teachers. When I started working with Andrew, I knew that I needed to break him out of his shell. I tried to be funny with him; he didn’t laugh at my jokes. I tried to talk about volleyball with him; he gave me one word answers. Over time, I continued with my failing techniques and each week, he would open up a little bit more. I was making progress!

But chemistry was a different story. Andrew had zero confidence when it came to chemistry. Not only did I have to help Andrew understand chemistry concepts, I also had to rebuild his confidence in the class. We worked slowly on this, and again, each week, he became more and more confident. I pushed him and put him in uncomfortable situations where he had to rely only on his brain to solve a problem. And after some time, he got it! He was understanding chemistry! He knew the formulas, he knew what to do with the formulas, he knew how to get the correct answer, and he felt confident going into his tests. YAY! This was a huge hurdle that we had overcome!

The only problem was that Andrew was still not doing well on tests. Where was this disconnect coming from? The second Andrew walked into class, everything he knew seemed to disappear. We started working on ways to overcome this and maintain his confidence in the classroom. At the end of the semester, Andrew’s grade was a 79.4%. 0.1% away from a B! Andrew begged and pleaded with his teacher to just boost him up to the B, but unfortunately his teacher wouldn’t budge.

But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. Andrew had learned so much that was beyond chemistry. He had learned more about himself, he had become more social and confident! Reflecting on my time with Andrew, it really made me realize that the important things in life are not getting A’s on chemistry tests. Family, friends, and living in the moment are important. Life is too short not to shoot for the impossible and strive to achieve everything! Andrew really made me realize how important it is to focus on the things you can change, and not to worry about the things you can’t. Andrew couldn’t make his teacher give him that B, but what shows character is not to dwell on the letter grade. What shows character is the realization that what you take away from the experience is what really matters.

Achieving the Impossible!

Walking in to your first tutoring session, you have so much emotion running through you: nerves, excitement, curiosity, anticipation. You are so excited to meet your new student and you can’t wait to see what the future holds! Walking out of the first session, you know that you can help this student achieve their goals. Not once do you think about how this student is going to affect your life and change you. Well, here’s the truth that I’ve learned: every student will change your life and make you a better person.

Enter Ben. Ben was a junior who needed tutoring for the ACT. Ben was one of my first students and after hearing all about him, I was so excited to work with him! Ben’s mom, however, was a little skeptical. She knew how new I was, and she also knew that Ben needed to do really well on his ACT to get into his top choice schools. My emotions went from excited to extremely nervous. (I mean, no pressure or anything to make sure Ben does really well on his ACT.) Ben and I started working together and it was a perfect match! We worked really well together; he responded well to my teaching techniques and feedback and always did EVERYTHING I asked of him without one ounce of complaining! I was always so excited for Sunday tutoring because I got to work with Ben! To make a long story short: Ben went up 6 points on his first real test, but then went down on his second.

After his second test, Ben, his parents, and I all sat down and had an amazing talk. We knew Ben was capable of surpassing his highest score, and he really needed to get one point higher to be a “shoo-in” to his top choice school. Ben was on board! He said he would do whatever it took to get that extra point. And if he didn’t get it in June, he would try again in September. Ben worked his tail off prepping for the June test, even with the load of finals weighing on him. But again, not one complaint came out of his mouth. A few weeks ago I got a phone call from Ben’s mom. I had been having dreams about Ben’s ACT scores - clearly I couldn’t wait to hear what she said. She told me that Ben had gone up two additional points from his first real test, raising his total score increase to 8 points - above and beyond what he needed to get into his top choice school. Then she started talking about how I have changed Ben’s life. She said that a year ago, she never thought that any of this was possible for Ben, but that we proved her wrong! Hearing her say all these wonderful things brought tears to my eyes. It was nice to hear how I had affected Ben’s life, but what about how he changed mine?

Ben made me realize why I love my job so much! He made me realize that life is all about the hard work you put into it. There’s no such thing as an easy path, and if there were, I wouldn’t want to take it. Ben and I worked so hard to achieve the impossible. The road was tough at times, but man does it feel good to look back and say, “We did that!”

Lauren Feldmann, Staff Development Assistant

Tutor Spotlight: Kristi Harreld, "Practicing to Be"

Kristi Harreld has been tutoring for nearly eight years, four of them with Nurturing Wisdom. She holds an M.A. in English from the University of Illinois (Chicago). When she isn’t teaching or tutoring, she enjoys kayaking, riding waterslides, and of course, taking photographs.

Teacher. Tutor. Writer. There are many words I would use to describe myself, but I recently encountered one I wasn’t so comfortable with. After opening the Easter card I’d made for him, my father-in-law exclaimed, “I didn’t know you’re a photographer!” I managed a smile but mentally protested. A photographer? I just took a photo of a lily and pasted it to a white card! I then toyed with the new label. What does or does not make me a photographer?

I often experience such confusion, except I’m usually the “labeler” and my students are the ones who are confused or even sometimes insistent. “I’m not good at writing” turns up frequently in sample paragraphs. “I’ve never liked to write” typically masks a lack of confidence. Many times, though, the self-proclamations run deeper; the worst of them are simple yet profound: “I’m not a writer.” Students usually laugh if I point out that they just turned in a typed something, a thing called a piece of writing, which makes the individual who produced it a writer. Still, the declaration lingers: I’m not a writer. Why not?

I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen. In the third grade, I was “published,” if you count the two slim short stories I bound together using scraps of hideous, discarded wallpaper samples (still good reads, if you ask me). Early on, I identified writing as fun, a task that gave me a sense of myself. And then I practiced. A lot. Hidden inside the polished writings I produced were hundreds of errors, revisions, and newer, better things that grew from those earlier attempts. In short, it’s the act of writing that has made me a writer. The quality of my writing has been described in various ways; nevertheless, I continue to identify myself as a writer because I keep writing. Many theorists believe that if we want students’ writing to improve, we must teach them to value the act of writing by having them do a lot of it. I’ve seen this theory proven many times, but I’d add a little twist: it helps to accept any labels that go with that practice, even if you can only do so temporarily. It may further help to tell students to try on such labels like those red-and-white “Hello my name is” stickers and see what comes of it.

Since the Easter card incident, I’ve applied this theory to myself a little more. A few weeks ago, I cleaned out the flash drive full of photos I’ve taken in the last six months. Several hundred shots were deleted because they didn’t hold value for me anymore. Actually, I realized their value wasn’t in their clarity, focus, or beauty, and it wasn’t meant to be; it was in helping me practice to be something new. Teacher. Tutor. Writer. Photographer. I kind of like the sound of that.

Photos copyright 2011 and 2010 by Kristi Harreld. Copied by permission only.

Tutor Snapshot: Laura Kurtycz

Laura Kurtycz (seen here with her pal Gilbert) has been tutoring with Nurturing Wisdom for almost two years. Students love Laura for the energy and enthusiasm that she brings to her sessions, and parents appreciate her skill for building confidence in her students. Laura has her B.A. in Chinese and Anthropology. She spent two years doing Teach for America in Chicago, and received her Master's in Early Childhood Education. To add to Laura's impressively varied background, she has also spent time in Africa volunteering at a baboon sanctuary, and working at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Long tails, dark brown hands, expressive eyes, warm hugs, and peppery breath. These are the sensory images that come to mind when I think back over my experience two summers ago, not long before I joined the Nurturing Wisdom team.

In July of 2009 I volunteered at the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education (C.A.R.E.), a Chacma baboon sanctuary outside of Phalaborwa, South Africa. As a volunteer, I participated in all parts of running the Centre, including food preparation, enclosure maintenance, observation, and food procurement (which sounds fancy, but really just meant riding all over the countryside in a pick-up truck, or “buggie,” collecting free or heavily discounted vegetables from neighboring farms). The babies at the centre are anywhere from 3 months to a year old, and all of them are orphans. Some of them were kept as pets (until they got older and were not cute anymore), some watched their mothers shot or poisoned, and some were just found by the side of the road. One way or another, they ended up at CARE. In the enclosure, or “hok,” it is the volunteers’ job to observe, mediate, discipline, and provide comfort to the babies, as older sisters and mothers would do in a wild troop. The babies would otherwise lack this type of interaction, which is crucial to optimal development and growth.

Laura is in the middle, feeding Bella. Crosby sits on her lap with his tongue sticking out, while Jude looks on. The baboon in the back is Rita.

The babies spent the days together in an enclosure, goofing around and playing with toys, including balls, dolls, boxes, and a small white plastic bucket. This was a favorite toy - many an hour was punctuated by human giggles as we watched one baboon or another repeatedly and purposefully bounce off of walls with a bucket on his or her head. One of my favorite memories is of Gabby, a seven-month old. One particular afternoon, Gabby picked up the old white bucket and slapped it over her head. Unfortunately, it was about a quarter full of water. Gabby held the bucket in one hand, and stood, astonished and sopping wet. She stared at bucket, dumbfounded, as we laughed until we cried. But afterwards, wiping away the tears, I wondered what Gabby was really thinking. Did she understand what happened? Did she blame the bucket? Was she confused? Would she always look inside buckets from now on?

Watching the baby baboons that summer, I was constantly struck by how much they reminded me of my former kindergarten students. They quarreled, they fought, they played with toys and they wrestled with each other, all within the space of a few minutes. Baby baboons groom each other. Five year old girls braid each others’ hair. What is the difference, really? But the parallels run deeper. The babies were exploring and learning all the time. Gabby learned a valuable lesson that day about water and buckets (and looking before you leap!). All day, every day, some tiny baboon brain is digesting some other lesson, some other truth about baboon life, so that someday she will be able to venture into the world as productive, (dare I say, educated?) member of baboon society.

Fortunately, human children are easier to teach than baboons – I guess being able to speak English to them makes a big difference. (Then again, human children do not have tails to grab onto as they run by, making them harder to catch). Yet I often feel that the experiences are similar. In both cases, all the young ones ask from us is patience, love, guidance, and the willingness to let them learn their own lessons, even if it means getting wet.

Tutor Snapshot: Peter Kang

Peter Kang is one of Nurturing Wisdom's most experienced tutors. Not to mention the busiest - Peter works with more students every week than anyone else! Families rave about his patience, thorough knowledge, and investment in his students. You may not know that before Peter tutored with NW, he was in the Marines. Now you can learn a bit more about Peter's experience in the Marine Corps, and his journey to teaching.

­I floated through high school relatively unscathed by its drama. I played three varsity sports: football, wrestling and baseball. I went to all the dances - with dates, might I add. I worked after practice, then hung out with friends. I was in every honors class my school offered. There were not as many AP classes then as there are now, but I was in AP Calculus. I was on the state qualifying math team.

Unfortunately my ACT score projection was…well, let's just say that you could roll three six-sided dice and get a higher number. My guidance counselor said that if I wanted help choosing a college, there was a stack of brochures next to the door. I also took the ASVAB, which is taken by military enlistees to see which jobs they qualify for. I was perfect that day. I could be anything I wanted…in the military anyway. Later, I took the ACT and scored significantly higher, almost double my previous score projection.

As graduation came and went, my father and I locked horns regarding my future. I wanted to join the Marine Corps. He wanted me to attend university. Eventually I relented, as I was still too young to enlist without the blessing of my parents. As fall rolled around, I found myself on the campus of University of Illinois at Chicago.

Early in my first semester as a soon-to-be graduating senior, I received an early morning phone call from my mother. She told me to turn on the news. I stared in silent disbelief for a time. As disbelief turned into anger, I felt as if my mind had been made up for me. My future, at least the next few years of it, had been decided for me on that early Tuesday morning. I joined the masses at the recruiting office. I had my second perfect day of testing, which allowed me my choice of prestigious specialties: intelligence, maintenance, or communications. I didn’t want to practice being interrogated, nor did I want to fix equipment that other people broke. This left me in communications, with a three-foot antenna sticking out over my head (hey, at least I could call for help). Shortly thereafter, I graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and two weeks later, as the saying goes, I was standing on the yellow foot prints.

I finished boot camp, infantry training, and two electronic communications courses in time to check into a unit that had just received its activation orders. In the four days between checking into my unit and going to war, I picked up a marriage license at city hall, got married, returned the necessary paperwork to city hall, added my wife to all my military papers, and then got packed.

Sooner rather than later, although it didn’t feel like it, we were sent home. Mission Accomplished. Or so said the banner that hung on the aircraft carrier where a former Air National Guard pilot landed. It sure didn’t feel like our mission was accomplished. Sure, I got a half dozen or so medals, but no parade. Men and materials were still being sent overseas and returning spent, if they returned at all. Some Marines that I worked with started taking exams which would grant college credit. Word had gotten around about my background; suddenly, I was very busy helping fellow Marines pass tests.

I reached a crossroad when I returned to civilian life, a life I had yet to experience. My wife and I had bought a home. She had finished her M.S. in Bioengineering while I was away, and was now headed to Toronto to pursue her PhD. At the same time, I was headed to New Orleans to pick up the pieces left behind by Hurricane Katrina. I wanted to go with her, to be supportive, to be there for her. But I needed to stay. I needed to keep things in order here, to make things better for her return. Teaching made sense. I felt good teaching. I could make a career out of teaching. My commitment to teaching took me through the halls of Northwestern University, and finally and into the folds Nurturing Wisdom.

Tutor Snapshot: Julia Wollrab

Julia Wollrab is a tutor in Chicago, with extensive and varied teaching experience. She has a B.A. in Latin American Studies and a minor in Art History from the University of Chicago. Julia also had a career as a professional ballet dancer, working as a soloist with companies all over the world.

When asked to pick my favorite travel story, I find it impossible to isolate a single experience. Was it midnight dining on suspicious yet deliciously spicy goat at a roadside restaurant in Ethiopia? Getting lost in the labyrinthine streets of old Cairo, where one is exposed to a range of human activity that fiction usually only approximates? Coping with the "interesting" toilets in a theater in Hangzhou, China in my "Tarantella" tutu? Surviving the crowds in the Mexico City streets and subway trains without dislocating a shoulder? Scaling the Great Pyramid, or the Great Wall? Successfully navigating enormous potholes at high speeds in a 1986 Ford Escort on the Alaskan highway? Exploring the exoticism of Oak Park, Illinois? Which moment has most thrilled and inspired me? It's hard to say.

I've been extremely fortunate in that my former career as a dancer meshed perfectly with another of my passions: travel. Touring with various professional dance companies over the course of 20 years allowed me to indulge my craving for adventure - on stage and off. Many a paycheck went straight to my plane ticket fund, for trips that supplemented the extensive touring I was already doing.

What is clear to me is that this form of experiential learning - exposure to radically diverse spatial and cultural environments, to both tragic poverty and awesome beauty, and confrontation with the unexpected - has provided me with a sort of "feedback loop" of learning. Eventually it inspired me to engage in formal academic study at the University of Chicago. The more I am able to witness, to actually "be" somewhere and absorb information with my senses, the more I become intellectually curious about how things came to be that way. Conversely, the more I learn through research, the more I want to witness how that reality, or that history, is lived out day-to-day.

It's fun to share my love of travel and culture with my students - especially as we work on their history or social studies texts. And sometimes, the only way to really stave off my obsession with travel as learning and learning as travel is, simply, more travel.

Tutor Snapshot: Elizabeth Guess

Elizabeth Guess is a versatile tutor with Nurturing Wisdom in Chicago. She has her B.A. in English and Spanish from DePauw University, and is currently pursuing her Master's in Education. Elizabeth tutors everything from writing to Spanish, math to the ACT. Though Elizabeth is originally from rural western Kentucky, she has fallen in love with the bustling Windy City streets.

The night Crittenden County High School won the girls basketball regional championship, I had just arrived home for spring break. I walked through the back door to find my parents sitting at the kitchen table, intently listening to the announcer. His fervor was magnetic, and though I hadn’t been home but for a few minutes, I was already rapt in the game. A last second shot, and then—“Rockets win! Rockets win!” His voice was breaking, the crowd's roar from the gym sounded through the fuzzy AM radio, and my parents and I looked to each other in silence, smiling and eyes welling with tears of pride for our tiny county school.

It was the first time my alma mater had ever sent any basketball team to the state tournament, and the excitement ignited the community like wildfire. The next morning, unadorned white banners with plain blue letters hung on the lampposts along Main Street. Despite their crude aesthetic, the banners spelled out a hopeful message: “The Little Town that Could.” Every business along Main Street embellished its windows with similar well-wishes: “Good Luck Lady Rockets!”; “All the Way to State!”; “The Triple Crown: All-A, District, and Region 2011!” Blue balloons, blue streamers, even blue flowers tossed in the March wind of Marion, Kentucky.

Though I live in Chicago now, one year out of college, I cannot ignore the Crittenden County part of myself. It is as if time stops while I’m away from my hometown, for anytime I return, things pick up right where I left them:

there are still just two stoplights;

there are still just three fast food restaurants;

the county newspaper is still published once a week;

the high school still graduates about 100 students each year;

the muddy pick-up trucks still dominate the roads;

the Amish still park their buggies in the grocery store parking lot;

the teens still hang out “up town” in the evenings and go “backroading” for fun;

and the adults still ask me how I’m doing away from home, no matter how many times they’ve asked before.

Crittenden County is a place where the people are “kin” to each other, where you’re “fixin’” to go to the store, and where pulling down someone's pants by surprise is called “shucking,” like shucking corn. And, of course, the typical Crittenden Countian is connected to most other citizens by three or less degrees of separation: I went to prom with my dentist’s nephew; my best friend’s aunt was my swim team coach, her uncle my algebra teacher; and my older brother, Neil Guess, went to homecoming with a girl named Lisa, who ended up marrying Terry Guess (no relation) and subsequently became the stepmother of one of my classmates, T.K. Guess (wait—what?).

Perhaps these quaint simplicities of rural life seem irrelevant to foreigners, but they inevitably constitute my personal mantra as both a student and (future) teacher of writing: from simplicity comes inspiration.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear, Lear famously threatens his daughter Cordelia that “nothing will come of nothing”—she will receive nothing from him if she does nothing to win his love through flattery. Many may think this ideology applies to the simple “nothings” of Marion, Kentucky, but in the case of my hometown and, more importantly, writing overall, there always is something, no matter how seemingly insignificant. The most successful creative pieces I’ve ever written focus on the most ordinary subjects, namely a personal essay entitled “Teeth: A Journey” and “Ole Blue Guess,” the narrative of the 1976 blue Chevrolet I drove during my teenage years: neither grand nor emotionally riveting, these stories simply bring to life common slices of the past that with earn recognition with lively storytelling.

Likewise, academic writing functions in a similar simple-to-inspired manner. When writing a research paper, I read all the material first without having any clue where it will lead, noting every regular moment, every tiny detail, every nothing that could be something. How does it all relate? How do these puzzle pieces connect? What trends, ideas, arguments can I make from these clues? These questions, help me find the inspiration among the simplicities and lead me to my thesis.

This very philosophy manifested itself that day at the Kentucky Sweet Sixteen basketball tournament as I cheered on the Lady Rockets. Throughout the wide sea of blue I spotted moments of my past—old classmates and teachers, family friends and foes, and citizens with whom I simply had that three-degree connection. Just as the subtleties of life inspire creative writing, just as the most minor details enlighten scholarly theses, these individual threads of Crittenden County had joined as a woven tapestry of community pride, reaffirming my mantra: from the simplicities of a rural community came the motivation to support Our Little Town that Could to the very end—and the inspiration to tell the tale another day.