Veronica L. is a 20-year-old senior from the Bay area studying communication with an emphasis on rhetoric in leadership at Pepperdine University. She will graduate this spring and plans to set off on an adventure around the world next September. Veronica has a passion for helping students and advocating for education and healthcare, and has gleaned a lot of wisdom and insight during her time as a tutor. 

How did you decide to attend Pepperdine?

I was planning to major in biology and trying to decide between several schools including the University of Washington. I took a trip there to meet the professors with whom I’d be doing research in the biology department. One of them wisely advised me that if there was any chance I would switch my major, I should reconsider attending. They have a strict program that’s hard to get out of, and he told me that unless I wanted to do that 100% of my life, I should go to a school that would be more accommodating about switching. Although I was passionate about science and thought I wanted to do it, at 17 years old I didn’t have the level of confidence to commit the next 40 years to this small and specific program. I ended up choosing Pepperdine and I couldn’t be happier. 

What are you studying, and why?

I started as a biology major but freshman year I felt really drawn to medicine as a profession. I really loved science and math but something felt off, and I was trying to unpack why. I realized what really drew me to choosing biology was doctors advocating on behalf of patients - the connection element of science and communication and advocacy. After thinking about it I switched to communications, specifically the rhetoric in leadership track. I spend lots of class time doing public speaking and communication theory. I’m also a gender studies minor. I love studying people on the margins of society and learning how to help them communicate with the people in the center, breaking down barriers. 

What do you plan to do when you graduate? 

I’ve been saving since I was 13 to take a year of travel. I don’t want to rush to jump into grad school or a full-on career, so I decided to pull out the savings and do the trip next year, for a full September - September. When I come back, I’m really interested in going into some sort of advocacy or policy-centered nonprofit. I want to look at health and how the healthcare system operates, so political advising also seems interesting, focusing on gender equity, education, and health. I know what I’m good at and passionate about, which feels more freeing than stressful. 

What are your travel plans for next year?

I’m planning on starting somewhere in southeastern Europe, possibly Turkey. I’m going with a best friend whom I studied with in Argentina, so we plan to spend three months in Spain to revive the Spanish we’ve lost. My parents will be in northern Europe for my dad’s sabbatical as well: Norway, Sweden, Finland, etc., so I’ll spend time with them up there. 

How did you get started tutoring? 

I started tutoring informally while in high school. I was nannying for a family and as the kids aged into more intense homework loads, I started helping them. For a time I really thought I wanted to be a teacher: it’s a field I really respect, and both my parents work in the education system. I tutored at a nonprofit in high school, working with a girl who has learning disabilities. I got so much joy just seeing how she learns so differently. Teaching her required breaking out of classroom boundaries and I got excited about figuring out how if she’s not learning math this way, how can we incorporate art or color or movement to the lesson; bits of problem-solving sparked creativity for both me and my student. For some, tutoring is the only opportunity kids have to learn in different ways.

When I got to college, a couple friends recommended tutoring as a way of structuring my time around crazy class schedules. I love the agency PCH gives me. I had so much fun tutoring in high school, and I think it keeps me a little bit smarter to have to teach people things constantly. Friends are shocked and awed when I can remember how to find the volume of a pyramid - well, it’s because I just had to teach someone yesterday! It also keeps me up on my grammar and structure of writing. I’ve seen how tutoring keeps me sharp to things I wouldn’t remember or view as important if I wasn’t still looking at them during tutoring. 

What do you like about tutoring?

First, seeing how much of a privilege tutoring is and thinking about how many students don’t have access to it. I love how it makes me think about ways that schools and teachers or families can benefit from having tutors. Tutoring should be something everyone is able to get, but students who have access create a disparity. So I think it’s inspired me to advocate on behalf of individualized, personalized learning in our education system.

Second, it’s helped me realize how uniform our education system is in terms of how it teaches in ways that might totally gloss over how a student absorbs information. While tutoring one student I’m usually challenged to think of how I can reframe it if a student isn’t understanding. For example, if their focus is better in the living room than in the kitchen I can say, let’s just move. How is learning so personal, yet we’ve created this system where it’s so uniform? I’ve been reflecting on how that affects the way a student can feel about their homework, school, teachers, peers, and even tutoring itself. I recognize the importance of standards but not the ways of getting students to meet them. We all learn and take in information so differently. The beauty of tutoring is that it pulls the student out of that mold and helps you not only learn but also how to learn.

What have you learned from tutoring?

Tutoring is not a way of explaining but reframing how to learn, how to explain the knowledge. I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed that when a student senses I’m handing the agency of learning over to them they are more inclined to vocalize what works for them. Instead of saying “not this,” you can pause, identify that’s something’s wrong, and encourage the student to explore the right way to solve a problem. If you do it for them it decentivizes feeling the value of what they’re doing. I’m all about giving agency to the student over what they’re doing, making them feel comfortable. Ultimately, I’m not here for parents, teachers, or schools: I’m here for students and I’m a tool for them. They should feel they can use me rather than feeling I’m just here to teach them. 

Do you have any tutoring success stories?

I have a student who is a professional equestrian. She’s an amazing girl and student, and she’s so passionate about what she does. Last year her career took off so I started working with her in late spring where I quickly discovered she was nearly a semester behind. She had to have everything done by June. I admit, it seemed daunting to have three months of work to cram into a few weeks.

When I started working with her I could not imagine what she was going through: this student was doing homework for nine hours a day, taking two tests a day for two weeks, and just plowing through it. She didn’t want to do school but understood that school is necessary. So we sat and rationalized: school is not her priority, but how can we get through it and how will it help her succeed in her actual passion? I reminded her that this might be so hard, and you’re tired now, but look at the success you’re getting both in school and then also the actual joy in life, horses. The sacrifices you’re making to do both will be so valuable down the line. 

It’s been cool to validate her reasoning for doing online school while also competing and all the resulting moments of stress. For her, school was a hurdle but it propelled her to be more competitive in what she wanted to do. It was awesome to look at her in this holistic way, not as someone who was lazy and got behind in school but as someone who is incredibly talented in something most of us couldn’t do. The grit and perseverance with which she approached the homework as a means to then pursue her passion… more power to you.

We’ve grown up with this linear way of understanding high school and education: this is the way and timeline and etc. School doesn’t have to look like it does for everyone else. Students should feel like school can work for them even if it’s not in the traditional sense. 

Anyway, she got caught up, and this year we’re focusing on not getting three months behind while she competes. I gotta admit I was more than a little impressed we did it. 

What’s a mantra you often impart to your students?

Resilience. When you get caught in a tough class or life circumstance or when you have no idea what’s going on - be resilient. Resilience isn’t something others possess and you don’t: we all have it, it can apply to academics and personal life alike. That mantra for me is believing in myself as someone who is resilient and imparting that: you’re inherently capable of getting over hurdles. Even if you slide through or go around it, find a way past it that works for you doesn’t mean you’re less capable. Resilience is there, just find a way to tap into it that works for you. 

If you have any free time, what do you do with it?

Thankfully I do have free time. I dance - I take weekly classes at a ballet school in Santa Monica. I used to dance professionally at the San Francisco Ballet in middle and high school, so classes are a way of carrying on that passion. I’m in a sorority and love all things social. Friends are a number one priority. I also work at Lululemon, which allows me the time to spend in the outdoors and working out. 

Have you read any good books lately? 

I force myself to read 30 minutes every night to shut down my head, otherwise I think I would lose my mind. I’m a massive massive nerd and WWII history buff so I’m currently working through the third part of The Last Lion, the huge biography on Winston Churchill. It’s an amazing 850-pg. book - I’m on pg. 530. My less nerdy answer is Little Bee, I recommend it to everyone who is interested in relevant novels. It’s about a young refugee in the UK. 

Any last words of wisdom you’d like us to take away from this conversation?

Your path is not linear - it never will be. Don’t expect it to be or every life expectation will fail. As soon as you expect something to be linear, the world will remind you it’s not. Assume it’s not going to be traditional and conventional and I think you’re set up more for success.