Reading, writing, Spanish, art history: these are the subjects I love, the subjects I most enjoy tutoring, and the subjects that I research and explore on a daily basis. Over the past year, I have worked as a high school English teacher, guiding my students through complex works of American literature, honing their writing skills, reinforcing their understanding of core grammatical concepts, and preparing them for the English and reading portions of the ACT exam. In addition to working as a high school teacher, I have spent the past two summers in beautiful Seville, Spain, where I taught English grammar to native Spanish speakers while sharpening my own Spanish speaking skills. Before beginning my work as an English teacher, I graduated summa cum laude from Hillsdale College with a B.A. in English and minors in Spanish and Classical Education. In addition to my studies at Hillsdale, I worked as a tutor for the college's English and Spanish departments, helping baffled Literature 101 students write their first literary analysis papers and breaking down complex verb conjugations for beginning and intermediate Spanish students. It was during this time as an undergraduate tutor that I began to develop my own teaching method, a method that actively engages the student in the learning process. I didn't want to simply conjugate Spanish verbs for my students. Instead, we walked through the conjugations together. I didn't want to write my students' literary analysis papers for them. Instead, I helped break down the writing process methodically, step by step. Indeed, it is my firm belief that the best teachers and tutors don't simply give out answers but rather teach their students how to arrive at those answers, thereby cultivating more proficient students: "Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."