Lillian Morgenthaler

I've lived in the Bay Area my whole life, having grown up in Menlo Park and graduated from UC Berkeley. At Cal, I majored in history and classics, concentrating in Roman cultural history and graduating with high distinction.

 

Growing up, English and history were my favorite subjects, and things were no different in college. Intro courses in Old English and German, followed by several years of Latin and ancient Greek, gave me a greater appreciation for the complexity of English, with its borrowings from many other languages. I became fascinated by how we can trace English’s development as a language through literature, from Beowulf to the works of Rick Riordan.

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After working for several years at The Daily Californian, I realized I was less interested in editing and more interested in working closely with writers to help them organize their thoughts, develop their arguments, and tell their stories. I began tutoring my junior year at UC Berkeley’s Student Learning Center, and loved working one-on-one with students to help them express their ideas in writing. I came to appreciate just how vulnerable the act of sharing your writing with the world can be, requiring you to expose your thoughts to the judgment of others. Seeing my students grow more confident in their writing skills over the course of our sessions was incredibly rewarding.

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As a tutor and teacher, I strive to foster a safe learning space in which students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas, and are able to learn and grow. Honing your writing and reading analysis skills takes practice, and can sometimes be very frustrating. No two students are the same—I shape my sessions around each student’s needs to help them improve their writing, whether that be focusing on essay organization or on sentence structure. My goal is to guide students through the learning process with conversation, practice, and individualized support, so that they can become confident, independent writers.

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In addition to tutoring and teaching, I enjoy reading historical novels, watching true crime documentaries, baking, hanging out with my cat, and watching Giants games with my family.

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