Approach

Andes values empathy, creativity, persistence, and flexibility and instills these values in their students along with good study habits and organization and communication strategies. They join with their students to meet goals at the students’ pace. Andes uses a combination of the Socratic method (intentional questioning) and Rogerian education (student-centered learning), bringing out the positive in their students through experiential learning. They have an immense passion for the English language, and they truly love helping others discover its power.

Education

Andes started their postsecondary education at Bard College, studying the liberal arts with a focus in creative writing, particularly poetry. They then transferred to Colorado College, another liberal arts institution; there, they wrote a 95-page thesis and graduated with a B.A. in Comparative Literature after analyzing English and Spanish literature with an emphasis in theatre. Andes went on to earn a Master’s in English with concentrations in rhetoric and composition, subfields focusing on argumentation and the teaching of writing. This graduate work especially focused on mental health texts and personal writing. Most recently, Andes studied in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) program at Columbia University.

Tutoring and Teaching Experience

Andes began tutoring in childhood, teaching a neighbor to read in elementary school and participating in a program in middle school wherein honors students helped struggling classmates with their homework. At Bard, Andes tutored peers in logic, and at Colorado College, they tutored elementary students in literacy.

After finishing their undergraduate studies in 2015, Andes took on tutoring full time, branching out to include Spanish, math, social studies, and more, with students in preschool through graduate school. In 2018, Andes was hired at the elite test prep agency Revolution Prep to tutor for the SAT, ACT, and AP tests, which they did until leaving for graduate school.

During their M.A. program, they assisted with university literature and history classes and taught their own sections of college composition. Upon graduation, they lectured at Texas State University along with continuing to tutor.

Andes has also been a creative writing teaching artist at a summer camp for teenagers and at the Austin Public Library.

Writing Experience

Andes’s creative work has been published in Stone of Madness Press, Electric Literature, Bi Women Quarterly, The Spun Yarn, Odyssey Works, and Theatre is Easy. Their work has also been used to train Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini.