As a student herself, Rachel brings the perfect amount of relatability and an insane amount of knowledge to each of her tutoring sessions. Get to know Rachel and learn how she can help your student excel in Chemistry, Biology & Statistics.
My Degrees & Education
Current Ph.D. student in Molecular Medicine at Case Western Reserve University
B.S. in Chemistry from Purdue University
Certificate of Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business
My Subject Expertise
Chemistry, Biology, Physics & Statistics
ACT & SAT Prep
Study Skills
"When I'm not studying or researching, you can find me hiking the vast Cleveland Metroparks system-even in the dead of winter. I'm also well-acquainted with local tea and coffee shops."
Tell us about your research.
Although I'm a student, I'm finished with didactic classes, meaning that I spend most of my day performing doctoral research at the Cleveland Clinic. I work in translational cardiovascular disease, particularly in the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. I research a family of cholesterol transporter proteins called ASTERS. These proteins play an essential role in lipid metabolic homeostasis, potentiating a cell's capacity to sense and respond to aberrant high levels of cholesterol, as seen in heart disease.
How did you get into this field?
I became passionate about research during my undergraduate studies. At Purdue, I decided to join a biophysics lab that modeled protein structure and became enamored with the process. I fell in love with that moment where you're the first person in the world to truly KNOW something new. I switched my major to biochemistry from pure chemistry and continued on to a doctorate program.
What unique approach do you bring to your job as a tutor?
Although this will be my first foray into tutoring, it's not the first time I've made topics more easily accessible to learners. As a tutor, I believe it's most important to review class notes from students. Their teacher is the one grading their work, and viewing students' notes of their lesson is the best way to understand the student's first impression. From there, it's a process of interconnecting a students' personal method of learning to apply these concepts in real world problems.
What’s something (unrelated to your field of study) that you’d like to learn more about?
I've always wanted to learn the guitar. I've played the cello in the past and imagine the learning process would be similar.
Interested in working with Rachel and rest of The Whole Kid team? Contact us to learn how we can help your student reach their full potential!