DAVID MASSEY
Director of Client Services
I graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a History degree with high honors. My years delving into the science of social interaction have given me a deep appreciation for history’s utility as a tool for building pattern recognition, critical thinking, and creativity while also providing students with templates upon which they can build their own morals and convictions.
I worked as Lead Instructor of the Peninsula Region of an international tutoring and counseling company for several years. This position put me in charge of all teaching operations for my region, which included five centers from Palo Alto to San Francisco. A major aspect of the position required open communication with parents, students, and the community to ensure client satisfaction. I am eager to apply these skills to my position at AJ Tutoring and Cypress College Prep.
Before tutoring and teaching, I gained experience in all levels of the California education system. My work with the Disability Rights Legal Center afforded me an excellent position to interact with the inner workings of school districts throughout California. These experiences helped me understand the laws, guidelines, and administrative pathways common to all education systems in the state, and I gained a ground-level understanding of education as a tutor and substitute teacher in several underprivileged school districts, where I learned how to effectively communicate with a diverse range of students and their families.
My experiences in education have given me a unique perspective on how to advise students and how to promote their success within the education system. I have thousands of hours of experience teaching advanced history, English, and math with goals ranging from grade improvement to improvement on standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT and GRE. This experience has solidified my belief in the importance of establishing a foundation of skills and understanding that students will draw on for the rest of their lives.
I am skilled at helping students break down difficult ideas into more manageable concepts and guiding them through these concepts until they can reconstruct the original idea for themselves. Additionally, I love writing and equally love to pass on my knowledge of persuasive and creative writing to my students. I am currently completing a degree in Special Education and am interested in pursuing an advanced degree in public administration.
In my free time, I enjoy cooking with my fiancé and reading anything I can get my hands on. I have also recently taken up climbing as a form of exercise and meditation. Above all else, my passion lies in helping students attain self-actualization: the moment in which they gain full command of who they are and understand the power at their fingertips when they commit their energies into attaining their full potential.