In order to learn more, I began listening to more diverse speakers and reading more books. I ensured that who I spent time with reflected this pursuit of increasing my proximity, empathy, and understanding of differing perspectives.

As an education company, it could be easy to assume that we are only focused on what happens in the classroom, that we want the student to walk away with an “A” and that’s it — our work is done. However, we focus on so much more than that. Of course we love to see quantitative improvement in a student’s score, but we also love giving students opportunities to understand that school is simply an opportunity to grow and develop them for the future. But if we are being honest, it can be hard to see that sometimes.

I’ve always dreamt of being a confident person in every aspect of my life but never thought it was possible. However, living with the growth mindset for the past year has gradually changed my life. What other people say about who I am doesn’t affect what I believe about myself anymore…

I failed at my new quarantine goal for the week… but I can still grow from it. Growing up, when I failed to do something, I always felt overwhelmed with frustration. It took years to restructure this narrative. In fact, I’m still in the middle of that process…

None of this is easy as we are all experiencing a global pandemic for the first time. Regardless of your situation, we want to try and support you the best way we can and share some ways that we’ve prioritized our mental and physical health during this season. You can pick and choose what works for you, but here’s what has been working for me and a few of our coaches.

From the time I was in my upperclassman years in high school and throughout college, I was very often asked this dreaded question: What are you going to major in at college? It was a question that brought about anxiety and self-doubt. I had no idea. The pressure to have your entire educational and professional career planned out by the time you graduate high school is real. It’s easy to look around and see how everyone else (seemingly) has their life all figured out.

After tutoring in high school, I noticed the success my students/peers had in and outside of the classroom when I introduced new study skills, how to take notes, and how to organize the thousands of papers that are shoved in front of them daily (trust me, later during my time as a Spanish teacher, I had more handouts than I’d care to admit). These small changes led to greater focus during our sessions and I was able to identify key foundational gaps in their learning while also teaching current content.