Meet Phil Zona, English major and Penn State Learning writing tutor from Spring 2012 - Spring 2013. Phil writes below about life after graduation, the importance of human connection, and how tutoring relates to insurance adjustments, software instructions, and marketing. After I graduated I moved to New Jersey to work as an insurance adjuster. I did that for almost three years and left to write documentation and instructions for a tech company that offers web hosting and private servers. Most recently, I've started a marketing company with a partner so we're spending a lot of time trying to get that off the ground. I've also done some freelance work here and there, which has been pretty cool because it lets me work on a huge variety of different projects. Tutoring has been a huge influence for everything I've done. I majored in English at Penn State, so people are sometimes surprised to hear I'm not in publishing or teaching. Working at the writing center taught me more than just where to put commas and how to rephrase a subordinate clause--it taught me how to figure out how to solve problems and help people, which are skills I've used far more than the purely grammatical and literary materials I learned in my classes. When a student comes into the writing center, they might have anything from a 500-word business essay to a graduate-level physics report, so you have to be versatile. For me, it was all about figuring out how to help them in a way they found valuable, even if I wasn't an expert in the subject matter they were writing on. Whether it's investigating car accidents or writing up instructions for installing software, there's always a human element to it. You never want someone to leave feeling like they don't understand what to do next, or like they didn't get some value from an interaction, and that can be tough because the people you deal with (in both business and tutoring) have such a diversity of needs, wants, backgrounds, and goals. But it's all about figuring out who that person is and making sure your message is on point so that it connects with them. That's been the biggest lesson I learned as a tutor, and I've applied it in everything I've done since graduation. If I were giving tutors one piece of advice, it would be to hang out with as wide a variety of people as possible. It gives you a more solid foundation as a tutor because almost every single person who comes looking for help has a different idea of what it means to receive help. When you know a variety of people, you get a sense for how to give advice to those with different personalities, and it makes things easier for you and them both. Tutoring and just life in general are both about human connections. Anyone can learn the technical skills for almost any given subject, but if you can't connect with people, I don't think it's possible to get to the point of exchanging knowledge in a meaningful way.
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AuthorsThis blog is a collaborative effort between current and former PSL employees. Authors include tutors, receptionists, PSL staff, and, of course, alumni. Archives
November 2016
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