My name is Colleen Mellinger. I was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and moved to California at the end of high school. Growing up, I was very intrigued by the world around me. I was constantly attempting to explain every phenomenon I saw. Once I got to school, this passion drove me straight to the sciences. I was finally able to explain phenomena I saw every day with reproducible data to back up my observations. It was no surprise that when I took my first chemistry class, I was hooked. I went on to pursue my undergraduate education at the University of California, San Diego, where I received my Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Physics. During college, I had many unbelievable professors that truly cared about students. I benefited from their dedication and enthusiasm, and I try to have a similar impact on my students.

I began tutoring professionally in 2014. I fell in love with turning the subjects students felt were impossible into subjects they could be excited about. The one-on-one style of tutoring is ideal as it allows me to tailor my explanations to each student: their learning style, their strengths and weaknesses, and their experiences which allow me to relate abstract concepts to something they’ve experienced. I have found that a majority of students who haven't started working with me rely on simply memorizing the facts. I, as an instructor, instead focus more on understanding the foundations that explain why a fact they were told to memorize is true. Not only does the student remember it better, but they can also extrapolate to other ideas, which is likely how it will show up on an exam. This approach is especially important for tests like the SAT and ACT, where understanding the test and its processes is essential to success. In addition to coaching students on core strategies and concepts, I bring in real-world examples and help students draw connections between ideas. With subjects like math and science, especially chemistry and physics, there are very abstract topics that are not intuitive to all students, so by connecting them to something they are familiar with, they now have an anchor point for that information and can retain it so much easier.  My favorite part about tutoring is helping students gain confidence and achieve success in subjects that often seem overwhelming or even impossible to understand.

On a personal side, in addition to science and math, tennis is a huge passion of mine. I started playing at six years old and haven’t stopped since. Combining my love for the sport and my passion for teaching, I coached all throughout high school and college. I went on to play for the Division II team at UCSD, where I learned priceless time-management skills I can pass on to my students. When I am not tutoring, I love playing video games, building mechanical keyboards, solving Rubik's Cubes, and above all spending quality time with friends and family.