Teaching/Tutoring

My journey as an educator began at Pasadena City College during the 2021 pandemic shift to remote learning. I was initially hired by the Math Success Center (MSC) as a Zoom host, where my primary duty was to greet students and triage them to the appropriate math tutors. At the time, I was taking Calculus 1, and during high-volume hours, my supervisors began asking if I’d be willing to step in and tutor students in precalculus and algebra.

Stepping into a tutoring role for the first time was challenging, and navigating the learning curve taught me how to be resourceful. Whenever I encountered a problem I couldn't immediately solve, I learned to guide the student through their own notes, textbooks, and online resources so we could find the solution together. By the following semester, while taking Calculus 2, I was officially promoted to a part-time tutor at the MSC. I spent 20 hours a week helping students with core math concepts and homework. This experience fundamentally shaped my view of education as a collaborative process; I quickly realized that every tutoring session was a mutual benefit, reinforcing my own fundamental understanding while helping my peers succeed.

The CAS Program

In my third year at PCC (2022-2023), I was fortunate enough to be hired as an in-class embedded tutor for the Calculus Achievement for Success (CAS) program. CAS was a program which creates classes for Calculus 1, 2, and 3, with additional support such as in-class tutors, and an additional 1 hour of instructional time per class. As an in-class tutor for Professor Christine Loritsch from PCC, I learned from one of the best Professor's on campus how to engage students and effectively teach complex STEM topics. Her ability to pivot her teaching style to meet students where they are was transformative for me. I’ve since integrated her student-centered approach into my own tutoring, focusing on building the same level of academic confidence she instilled in her classes.

My passion for math education and hard work as a tutor for PCC was recognized when I graduated in 2023, I was awarded with the Mei-Ling Cheng Tutor Award along with the Outstanding Mathematics Student of the Year award!

When I transferred to UC Irvine in 2023, I was truly honored to be a recipient of the S-STEM scholarship, which is awarded to first-generation transfer students in STEM with high academic achievement. Through this scholarship, I met Analia Rao, the Executive Director of the Office of Outreach, Access, and Inclusion (OAI) and one of the biggest supporters of my journey at UCI.

Analia helped me get started as a UCI tutor in 2023 when I was hired by the OAI office as a mechanical engineering tutor. As an OAI tutor, I provide one-on-one and small-group tutoring to students in the School of Engineering, focusing on challenging subjects like dynamics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, etc. My primary goal is to encourage independent learning by guiding students through example problems so they develop their own problem-solving intuition.

In addition to academic tutoring, my role involves mentoring students in several key areas:

• Course planning and academic advising

• Resume building

• Navigating research opportunities

The feedback from students has been incredibly rewarding, with many sharing that our sessions helped them deeply understand the material and excel on their exams. Just as I learned to adapt to student needs at PCC, my experience at UCI has further refined my ability to communicate effectively and break down complex engineering problems into accessible, manageable concepts.

Being a Teaching Assistant

When I became a Masters student at UCI, my journey in education took another exciting step forward when one of my former professors actually reached out to me. They asked if I would be interested in stepping up as a Teaching Assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course. Since senior design is the big capstone project where students put everything they've learned into practice, I was thrilled to take on the role.

Being a TA for this class is a lot different from standard tutoring. Instead of just helping with homework problems, I get to guide teams through the entire engineering design process. A huge part of my job is advising students and giving them practical, constructive feedback. When a team hits a wall with their project, I sit down with them to troubleshoot their designs, figure out what went wrong, and help them brainstorm realistic solutions.

Another major responsibility I have is grading their assignments and project reports. Because senior design projects are so open-ended and unique to each team, grading isn't always black and white. I make it a top priority to be as fair and consistent as possible, making sure I am evaluating them on their engineering logic, effort, and how well they apply what they've learned.

Overall, being a TA has been an incredible way to blend my technical mechanical engineering skills with my love for teaching. It is really rewarding to watch a team of students take an idea from a rough sketch all the way to a working prototype, knowing I got to support them along the way.

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

As a mechanical engineer, my approach to solving problems is grounded in practical, real-world application. I view the classroom through the lens of a control system. In this analogy, my instruction is the input signal, providing the necessary theory and direction; my students are the motors, providing the drive and energy; and their learning is the final output. Crucially, a robust control system relies on continuous feedback to correct errors and optimize performance. In my teaching, this feedback loop is realized through active engagement, iterative problem-solving, and accessible instruction.

My primary goal for student learning goes beyond memorizing formulas and textbook procedures; I want students to develop a robust engineering intuition. Whether I am teaching foundational theories in a core class or guiding a senior design team, my objective remains the same: to equip students with the conceptual understanding needed to take a complex, open-ended problem and translate it into a logical, efficient solution.

The discipline of mechanical engineering inherently shapes this approach. Because our field relies heavily on applying abstract math and physics to tangible, uncertain real-world scenarios, a traditional, lecture-only format is insufficient. Therefore, I structure class sessions by first demonstrating a concept or technique, and then immediately transitioning into active learning. During this time, students work on applying these concepts while I walk around the room to troubleshoot, answer questions, and provide real-time guidance. This collaborative environment mirrors how professional engineering teams operate and allows me to close the feedback loop of my control system, correcting misunderstandings right at the source.

To accurately assess this learning output, I prioritize continuous, iterative feedback over relying solely on high-stakes, traditional written exams. By breaking down complex topics into manageable deliverables, whether through project milestones, regular practice problems, or active discussions, students have the opportunity to iterate on their understanding. When culminating projects or presentations are used, they reflect the modern realities of communicating technical work in the industry, accommodating different strengths while ensuring students can confidently defend their engineering logic.

Creating an inclusive learning environment is fundamental to the success of this system. I structure my teaching to avoid making assumptions about my students' prior technical exposure. A student who has never turned a wrench or built a physical prototype must feel just as supported as a peer with extensive hands-on engineering experience. By starting from fundamental concepts and building complexity incrementally, I ensure the material is accessible to all backgrounds. My role as the input in this control system is to calibrate my instruction so that every student has the power to reach their full potential.