PrepNow Tutor - Larry S.
A grandfather who is always looking to learn new things, Larry holds a BS with distinction in engineering from Harvey Mudd College, an MS in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Minnesota. Larry’s career spanned forty years in the software industry as a staff engineer, team director, manager, and consulting engineer. He is now semi-retired and loves sharing his love of learning with high school and college students through tutoring and consulting.
Larry started tutoring as an undergraduate, teaching students calculus I, calculus II, and systems engineering. As a graduate student, he taught computer programming to peers in his program, and, throughout his time in the software industry, Larry frequently mentored graduate engineers and technology employees. “Helping people learn new concepts has always been one of my favorite aspects of my career,” he says. “I learned a lot about tutoring through the opportunity to mentor over forty years of professional work. This was something I truly enjoyed and was instrumental in my decision to tutor after I retired from full-time work.”
When tutoring, Larry never lectures but instead encourages his students to answer questions and help him solve every problem. “Being involved in the learning process teaches students not only the answer to a specific problem but also the skill of teaching themselves, which is critical in college and beyond,” he explains. “I strive for clarity in teaching and remind my students to interrupt me as necessary if anything is unclear. No question should go unanswered.” Larry has a particular love of mathematics and continues to teach himself advanced topics to this day for fun. “As a professional, I was always at the front of the line to tackle tasks with heavy math and analytic components such as inventory management programs, statistical predictive applications, and data representation algorithms,” he shares.
Larry has been involved in his faith by serving numerous roles and he is also a volunteer for several social service organizations that serve the homeless community. He enjoys solving challenging math problems, traveling, and exploring new computer software technology. He is also teaching himself Spanish with Duo. “The only state that I have not visited is South Carolina—which I look forward to visiting next summer!”
