Mariana V.
Mariana is a recent graduate from Brown University, where she earned an A.B. in Biology and an A.B. with Honors in Anthropology. She was accepted into the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), which guarantees undergraduate students entry into Alpert Medical School, but she has since decided to pursue her passion of medical anthropology instead. She is trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and French. She also has extensive knowledge of German.
At Brown, Mariana conducted two fully funded research projects that explored the intersection between the social sciences and medicine. One of the papers that came out of these projects was awarded the Watson Smith Prize for best student research paper, and another was published in a premier peer-reviewed journal in the field of anthropology. Mariana also worked for the university as a tutor in organic chemistry, as well as cellular and molecular biology. In this role, she tutored her peers in the Program in Liberal Medical Education to help them prepare for medical school. Previously, she has tutored both English- and Spanish-speaking students at high-school level in a large variety of subjects, and she started a program at her own high school that helped children that had recently immigrated with subjects they found challenging.
Due to Mariana’s multidisciplinary background, she is available to tutor a number of different subjects, such as biology, chemistry, math, social sciences, life science, writing, Spanish, and French. She has worked with all of these subjects herself at university level. Her teaching philosophy is inspired by her work in anthropology, a field that is centered on the background and lived experiences of individuals. She believes that a successful approach to tutoring must in the first place be personal and tailored to the specific needs of each student. As a result, she does not believe in applying “cookie-cutter” solutions or “oven-ready” lesson plans, but works with her students to advance their education in the way that is most suitable to them.
In her free time, Mariana enjoys sewing and baking, as well as trips to museums or walks through nature. She believes in challenging herself on a daily basis, particularly when it comes to acquiring new knowledge, which is why she is also learning Dutch at the moment.