We are happy to announce the opening of the Gradate Writing Center this semester with a set of excellent tutors. Please read on below to learn more about each of our tutors!
Danny McCarthy was born and raised in the Monterey area. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Oregon in Linguistics with a minor in Business Administration. During his time as an undergraduate, Danny tutored all steps of the writing process for the College of Education. Additionally, he worked with ESL (English as a Second Language) learners on improving their spoken and written English. In his free time Danny enjoys playing basketball and baseball recreationally as well as sitting down to read a good book.
Ellie Wolf is an English as a Second Language instructor with five years of experience as a writing tutor. She graduated from the MIIS MATESOL program in summer 2013 and currently teaches Reading and Writing, Oral Communication, and Active Listening Strategies in the MIIS Intensive English Program. In spring and summer 2013, she was an ESL instructor for the Kanda and Shimane University special English programs, as well as the writing tutor for the English Preparation for Graduate Studies program at MIIS. Writing instruction has been one of Ellie’s primary professional interests since earning a BA in Writing and Spanish at Pitzer College, where she worked for four years as a writing tutor in the Pitzer Writing Center.
Adrienne Matunas is a MATESOL candidate in the Peace Corps Master’s International program at MIIS. She earned a B.A. in philosophy and religion at Middlebury College, where she worked as a writing tutor for three years and conducted research on tutoring outcomes at Middlebury’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research. She also tutored calculus and astronomy, and taught English as a foreign language during a semester abroad in Italy. This past summer, Adrienne worked as an ESL instructor for international students at Exploration Summer Programs. Adrienne also has a special interest in writing poetry. For the time being she is nervously awaiting her Peace Corps placement, where she hopes to teach English as an education volunteer beginning in the summer of 2014.
Kaitlyn Mearn: I recently graduated from MIIS with a degree in International Policy Studies with a concentration in Conflict Resolution. I began working as a writing tutor in 2012 and have experience teaching English as a foreign language in Spain. I received by bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the College of the Holy Cross. Following my undergraduate studies, I moved to Taiwan to continue studying Chinese and then worked in Ukraine. During my free time, I like to read and play sports, especially tennis and volleyball.
David Tasker graduated from the MIIS TESOL program in December of 2013. His bachelor’s degree, from the University of Colorado, is in Italian Studies with a minor in Philosophy. As an undergraduate, David tutored Italian, and, as a MIIS student, taught it to his peers through the BUILD program. He has taught and tutored English for five years, as a volunteer with various local nonprofits, like the Peace Resource Center in Seaside, and professionally, for the Intensive English Programs at MIIS. Aside from tutoring writing at the Graduate Writing Center, David assists TESOL professor Kathleen Bailey to get articles and book chapters publication-ready (and is an expert copy-machine operator), and works with TESOL professor Jean Turner on a needs analysis for a big, important language-learning company. David enjoys working both with writers who are English learners and those who speak English as a first language.
