Carrie comes by her love of language and literature honestly.
"When I was growing up I loved language and literature and went to a magnet school for languages and international studies," says Carrie, who has spent the past two academic years tutoring all levels of Latin, term papers, college essays and SAT prep. "What I love about tutoring is being able to work with someone one-on-one and really get to know his or her learning style, interests, strengths, and weaknesses."
Carrie began tutoring by working with her classmates in Latin and linguistics. "I loved it then, but it was more of a peer tutoring atmosphere. When I graduated from college, I began tutoring students of all ages in Latin -- my youngest was seven, and I worked with middle and high school students as well."
Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Classical Studies at Penn where her research focuses on the tragedies of Roman philosopher and poet Seneca, Carrie grew up in Richmond, Virginia. After high school she headed to Smith College where she surprised herself by switching from her originally planned major in linguistics to one in the Classics - Greek and Latin literature, to be precise.
"I had the opportunity to study abroad in Rome at a program for Classical Studies, which I enjoyed immensely," says Carrie. "We went all over Italy and got a feel for the ancient city and countryside."
She was hooked.
After college Carrie taught Latin and Classical Studies at the secondary level for two years in Richmond, and then eventually moved to Philadelphia to pursue graduate studies. In 2009, she received her master's degree, and decided to keep going.
In her spare time, Carrie listens to all kinds of music, travels abroad, plays a mean game of Scrabble, and enjoys English horseback riding and yoga, but much of her time is spent pursuing her passion. And though she eventually expects to stand in front of a college classroom, tutoring offers something different, says Carrie.
"The best part is when students see themselves improve and start to develop a sense of self-confidence in the subject where before there might have been frustration," says Carrie. "One of my favorite 'A-Ha' moments is when a student realizes that another language does not map one-to-one to English. While the structures can be similar, there is no single 'right' translation for a sentence. Many of us, when we learn languages, try to make it fit English exactly, so when a student can figure out for herself (not be told) that this is how language works, it's exhilarating."