History Archives - My Learning Springboard

Jacob Backer

Since graduating Yale University in 2014, Jacob has been providing private tutoring in the greater New York City area including both acceleration and remediation. Jacob’s strengths rest in his ability to encourage students to achieve their academic potential and ease the anxiety that comes with standardized testing.

Jacob thinks it is important to create a comfortable learning environment for students. Students need to be encouraged to push themselves and will never do so if they are afraid of failure. He believes in a steady and encouraging approach that focuses on building a student’s confidence as well as their academic skills.

For over 4 years, Jacob has helped students prepare for various standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, SSAT and ISEE. He has worked in a wide range of subjects including Algebra, Geometry, US and Global History, Living Environment, and English.

Jacob also has extensive experience working with struggling students and helping seemingly unmotivated or apathetic youth to reengage with academics. He is able to skillfully assess students’ academic needs and fill in gaps in their education. Jacob helps struggling students build the confidence necessary for academic success; once a student believes they can handle the work they have been assigned, they are far less likely to avoid it. His work with students includes supporting and developing enhanced skills for organization, essay writing, and note taking.

Jacob was a strong test taker in high school, earning a score of 5 on all of his AP exams as well as several perfect and near perfect SAT scores. He earned his undergraduate degree in History from Yale University and graduated with honors.

Outside of tutoring, Jacob is a musician and producer. He is a multi instrumentalist, composer and songwriter who records his own music and performs around New York City. He approaches teaching with the same passion and energy that he brings to his music.

Angeline Gonyea

Angeline Gonyea began privately tutoring nine years ago in college, guiding first generation Latino students through their homework and teaching their parents conversational English. She has been tutoring youth ever since ranging across a wide range of subject areas, including the humanities, math, biology, chemistry, and Spanish. Through her training in a mentoring program, Angeline practices the importance of praising youth for the work they do, instead of praising youth for how smart they are.

Angeline graduated with a triple concentration in Economics, International Studies, and Spanish from the University of Michigan. After learning about quality of life through a broad lens, Angeline wanted to improve people’s lives in a more direct and healthful way. She went to a health-supportive culinary school, Natural Gourmet Institute, and worked as an allergist specialist and personal chef. She segued into teaching early morning pilates classes and was rated on Classpass as Top Ten Pilates Instructors in NYC for 2018. Currently, Angeline is taking science classes in order to apply to medical school.

Angeline’s goal is to teach material in creative and productive ways. She divides material into manageable pieces, goes through lots of practice problems, and recaps material to finish. As a continuing student herself, she has many test taking strategies, and specializes in Chemistry and Biology at the high school and college level.

She has worked extensively with students with autism and ADHD, which has included executive function coaching. Angeline incorporates motivational interviewing techniques into tutoring. By using reflective listening and open-ended questions, she gives students the opportunity to speak about their motivations and discover how important their goals are to them. Angeline helps students develop unfaltering patience with subject matter and staying focused for longer periods of time with genuine interest and enthusiasm.

In her free time, Angeline enjoys reading, meditating, yoga, and embroidering. She also leads a Mind Body Hour with psychiatric patients at Weill Cornell, and she serves as a health coach for veterans in NYU Langone’s Goals for Eating and Moving Lab.

Allen Lipson

Allen Lipson is a dynamic and versatile educator eager to meet students’ diverse needs. With a record of success within formal and informal education, a passion for academic and testing excellence, and a broad range of interpersonal career experience, Allen brings a unique background to his private tutoring work. He specializes in math, reading, writing, and standardized test preparation.

Allen graduated in May 2015 from a rigorous dual-degree program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary summa cum laude at both schools with Bachelors’ in Economics and Rabbinic Literature, respectively. His test results include a perfect 340/340 on the Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning GREs, a 1570/1600 on the SATs, an 800/800 on the Math 2, U.S. History, and World History SAT-II’s, and a 5/5 on nine A.P. exams, including Statistics and Electrical and Mechanical Physics.

Allen has relished sharing his excitement for education over a span of ten years. His test prep experience includes one-on-one coaching in GED math for non-native English speakers, group lessons in GED English for classes of twenty or more adults, and SAT and state test tutoring for high school students. Beyond academia, Allen teaches seventh-grade Hebrew school classes on Jewish history and literature and mentors young teenagers for their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. He worked three summers at a sleepaway camp as an integration counselor for campers with autism.

Currently, Allen teaches public courses as a year fellow at the Hadar Institute, a progressive Jewish research center. His previous role as a union organizer stressed the importance of building one-on-one connections with workers of diverse ages and backgrounds. Before organizing, Allen was a financial consultant for AXA, the global finance firm, where he practiced fine attention to detail through project management.

Outside of work, Allen is an avid reader of literature and philosophy, an amateur runner, and a passable cook.

Gabe Nathans

Gabe Nathans has over three years of private tutoring experience from the elementary school to college level in both test preparation and academic subjects.

Gabe Nathans received his B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, where his studies also included high-level courses in math, physics, and history. An avid musician, he played the double bass in the Yale Symphony Orchestra (including a performance at Carnegie Hall), the electric bass in a number of musical groups, and and has continued to play in musical productions and venues across New York City. Currently, he studies comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center and performs stand up and improv comedy around the city.

After graduating from Yale, Gabe spent two years as a full-time academic subject and SAT/ACT tutor working with middle and high school students in foster care, where he helped multiple students pass Regents exam they had failed repeatedly, worked with a student to raise his SAT Math score by 150 points, and guided another student from C’s and D’s to B’s and A’s the following school year. He has also tutored privately, helping to prepare students for the SAT, ACT, ISEE, and SSAT, and has coached high school students in college essay writing. He is a kind and empathetic tutor who draws on his sense of humor to help students through challenges and make tutoring sessions a fun experience. Parents and students have praised his patience, as well as his knack for breaking down complex topics in a clear and engaging way.

Gabe specializes in SAT, ACT, and ISEE/SSAT preparation, as well as academic subject tutoring in middle and high school math (Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Algebra II/Trigonometry, and Geometry). He also tutors students in English and U.S. and Global History.

When he is not tutoring, Gabe likes to write and perform comedy and music around New York City, and enjoys spending time with his family.

Emma Miller

Emma Miller is a classroom teacher and private tutor whose areas of focus are informed by her work as a teacher, writer, and comic. She specializes in History and English tutoring, writing coaching, and standardized test preparation in the Humanities. Emma earned her B.A. in History from Brown University, and she is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in psychology at NYU.

For the past two years, Emma taught History and English at Fusion Academy, a private school with a one-to-one class model. She has taught 8th-12th grade students in Honors, College-Prep, and Standard levels. Her classes spanned World History, American History, Ancient Civilizations, Government, English, and Life Skills. Beyond research papers, she worked with students on their college and high school admissions essays. Emma’s lesson plans shaped curriculum to reflect each student’s mental processing strengths. She prioritizes understanding how each person learns to best cater her pedagogy.

The Fusion class structure accustomed her to the tutoring dynamic and its potential for meaningful connection. As a chosen “lead teacher”, Emma supported students’ academic goals through mentorship. She created a consciousness-raising group for the female-identifying and non-binary students, and she helped edit a few student screenplays and stand-up sets—she encourages creativity to develop investment in course material.

While at Brown, Emma was a writer and performer in the school’s long-form improvisation and sketch comedy teams, and a senior staff writer for the satirical newspaper. She has been in the Advanced Study program of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre since high school. She draws on these experiences to bring flexibility and humor to her work as a tutor.

When she is not studying in graduate school, Emma can be found at the New York City Ballet, browsing the History section in a bookstore, or checking out the latest foliage change in Central Park.

Jacob Backer

Angeline Gonyea

Allen Lipson

Gabe Nathans

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Private Tutoring

Test Preparation

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