With an MIT degree and love of all things STEM, Maria knows the value of curiosity and its power inside and outside the classroom. She attended a vocational high school, studying under electricians for 4 years. Her Environmental Engineering degree led her to visit farmers in India, get dirty with waste-pickers in Nicaragua, and chase volcanic smog around Hawaii.

Yet every experience has built her passion for unlocking student potential. Since 2011, she has continually tutored, first for work-study, then the AmeriCorps program City Year, then as a full-time career.

Maria has a passion for unlocking potential not only in grades and conceptual understanding, but also in self-esteem and the joy of learning. She loves to help students combine vulnerability and effort to invigorate their academic lives as well as their emotional, social, and/or faith lives. In any given tutoring session, you may find Maria:

• Becoming overly enthusiastic about percents and fractions
• Convincing skeptics that tests are fun, or
• Sharing openly about life lessons she wished had been taught in school.

Fun Facts: Maria is a jack of all trades. She is quite handy around the house, runs a chocolate-art-and-board-game company, sings in an a cappella group, and frequently beats her mother and husband at card games. She is very involved in her church, especially in the Hospitality ministry, Partakers: College Behind Bars mentorship program, and Transformational Listening class series.