Tutor Spotlight: Jenna

Tell us a little about yourself.

I'm a true local - born in Washington, DC, raised in Arlington, Virginia, and now a proud DC resident. I graduated from the University of Virginia as an Echols Scholar with a BA in English and Drama, and continued my studies in London, where I lived for 5 years. I am also a member of the Folger Shakespeare Library's education outreach programming. I love reading (Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is incredible), theater, 17th-century literature, and dogs. I really love dogs.

What is one thing you've learned this year about your area of expertise?

So often, when a high-performing student doesn't do as well on mocks, it has more to do with fear of failure than anything else. If you're worried about disappointing yourself or your family, it's easier to say "Oh, I would have done better if I'd really tried" than to actually do your best and risk failing. But if you don't try, you'll never have the chance of success.

What is a recent "success story" with your families?

I had a student who seemed at once very motivated (expected very high scores of herself) and very unmotivated (didn't do the homework, got discouraged as soon as she didn't get a perfect score on a section). Once I realized that she had set impossible goals for herself, we had a serious talk where I pointed out the goals that we'd set at our very first session and how excited I'd be if she achieved them, and how I thought we could get there. Something finally clicked in our last sessions, when she saw that my strategies were there to help her, and she ended up with a 210-point increase after 8 sessions! And most importantly, my student was absolutely thrilled.

What advice would you have for your students?

Look at the test as a sneaky puzzle that you have to figure out. Some challenges are good, and if you want to fulfill your potential it's going to involve a lot of hard work. So you might as well have fun doing it!