Math to the People

I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where, since I young age, I always knew I was good at math. I was lucky to have teachers around me who pushed me forward and gave me opportunities to challenge myself with harder material and math competitions. When I was in school I regularly placed top in the province in every math competition I did.

Knowing that math was something that I was good at was what inspired me to study it in university. However, being a student at Queen’s University began to give me another source of information. I was consistently surrounded by students who understood math less well than I did, and would often times help explain to them concepts that they were struggling with in class. I learned the joy that one gets from helping someone finally understand a difficult concept, or figure out a way forward with a difficult problem. I realized that I enjoyed teaching math even more than I enjoyed doing it, and that the more difficult the math was for my fellow students, the more I enjoyed teaching it.

A number of professors at Queen’s recognized my passion for teaching, and offered me teaching assistant positions in their courses. I started working as a teaching assistant when I was only in my second year at Queen’s, and took on four contracts before I graduated with my honours Bachelor’s degree.

I continued on to graduate studies at McGill, hoping to go on to teach at the university level. My potential was recognized by NSERC, and I was granted a Canada Graduate Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships in Canada. While doing my Master’s degree, I continued to work as a TA, further developing my teaching skills, and learning more about how students learn. In 2007, my students were so happy with the job I did as their TA, that I was awarded a departmental TA award for being one of the top 2 TAs in the department.

After finishing my Master’s degree with flying colours, I decided that my love for teaching couldn’t wait for me to do a Ph.D., and went on to look for full-time teaching work. I’ve since been teaching at Champlain College outside of Montreal, where one of my students has told me i was the best teacher he ever had. For the past year, I was running my own tutoring business in Montreal called Piece of Cake tutoring, where I was so desired as a tutor that I had to start turning students away because my full-time work week was already full.

I have now moved to Vancouver, and have been continuing my tutoring business here. I have been pursing teaching work at colleges and universities, and have received contracts at Thompson Rivers University and University of the Fraser Valley in the past year. I am currently teaching a precalculus cours at UFV two days a week.

In addition to mathematics and teaching my interests include playing bassoon, cycling, knitting, and feminism. I have a partner in Vancouver, and hope to start a family soon.

If you want to see my full resume click here.