As I mentioned on the home page, I'm currently on leave from my work in Corvallis, Oregon (pictured above) as a mathematics graduate student and graduate teaching assistant at Oregon State University. My most recent CV (updated 9/15/2026) reflects this work:
Community and organization portfolio
Broad takeaways
Outside of schoolwork, I have mostly worked on project management and community engagement. This kind of work aligns with one of my core values: intentionally-designed projects and systems which have a real impact on my community, especially community members with unmet needs. My experiences have given me a few vital skills:- Collaboration and teamwork. I see collaboration as immensely important. There are many worthy
goals that are too ambitious for any one person, so we need to work together to achieve them.
Sometimes this means playing smaller roles that serve the bigger picture, and sometimes this means
taking initiative and playing leadership roles. In the next section, I lay out my
experience doing both kinds of work, but both small and large roles require effective
communication, so that has become my most-valued skill. I talk more about this in my philosophy portfolio.
Another major part of teamwork is diversity and inclusion. There is monumental value in hearing different perspectives on the same topic, so I believe that organizations and projects should go out of their way to include a wide variety of people and perspectives in their work. Instead of viewing differences as roadblocks, I use them as opportunities for open-mindedness and progress. You can read more about my thoughts on this in my DEI statement. - Organization of resources and people. The impact of a project is dependent on the available
resources and people, and I've seen many projects suffer as a result of misorganizing its resources.
To address this on the individual level, I work really hard on organizing time, data, and people so
that people trust me to get effective work done on my own.
But effectively using resources and people also involves holistic, detail-oriented thinking: What systems should we put in place to avoid making costly mistakes? If we have different teams working on the same project in different ways, how do we combine their results and avoid miscommunication? The structure of a project or organization should be built on the answers to these questions. - Iteration, data, and community. Projects are founded on the goals they want to accomplish. As
such, I have a very results-oriented approach to project management. But fully accomplishing all of
our goals requires learning from our mistakes and improving in the future. This iterative process
requires lots of feedback, so I work hard on gathering and analyzing data to provide guidance for
future action. I discuss this more in my math portfolio.
When a project is dedicated to serving a group of clients, gathering and analyzing data relies on building mutual trust, maintaining a sense of community, and understanding their values, backgrounds, and perspectives. It frankly does no good to view communities as helpless, predictable, and ignorant of the "real problems," so I work on building healthy partnerships with clients that let us solve the problems together. Again, diversity, equity, and inclusion are really important for this. Read more about that in my DEI statement.
Projects and experience
CAPS
Kalamazoo College's Center of Civic Engagement has a program called Community Advocates for Parents and Students, or CAPS. CAPS is a grassroots, all-volunteer community organization that provides tutoring opportunities for Kalamazoo Public School students who live in low-income housing. I worked with CAPS during the 2019-2020 school year, during which time I- created a welcoming learning environment where the students felt interested in learning,
- helped students of all ages complete their schoolwork, focusing on literacy and math skills,
- talked with students about school, college, and their relationships to other people.
RA and SRA
At Kalamazoo College, I worked for 2.5 years as a Residential Assistant (RA) or Senior Residential Assistant (SRA). In this role, I- managed RAs for 2 residence halls and coordinate action related to community programming, emergency response, student outreach, and more,
- worked with 6 other RAs to mentor 220 residents on adapting to college life, and
- led programs in collaboration with several college departments and several of the 96 student organizations to give residents useful information and enjoyable activities.
SIP and MPC
At Kalamazoo College, I worked with the Math and Physics Center (MPC) as an assistant to the center. In this role, I- managed and advised the consultants working in the center, organized their activities, and scheduled meetings with the consultants and the director of the learning centers,
- spoke to consultants who worked at the collected and utilized feedback on tutoring resources, and
- advised students on handling courses and departments
I also completed my Senior Integrated Project (SIP) in coordination with the MPC: I developed a system of videos and written documents that were accessible primarily through the MPC, since the physical documents were housed there and the digital materials were housed on an MPC channel for Microsoft Teams. In addition to developing the learning materials themselves, I developed the system which allows others to contribute materials of their own. The system comprised written documents and videos which explain the solution process for various Calculus problems, and you can find these on my GitHub "Capstone" repository.
Addressing university challenges
Oregon State University is a research university defined by an individualist culture of career success. The undergraduate students I taught only invested in their math classes because the work was required for their major, making their classes a stepping stone to their individual career. Graduate student and faculty culture was very similar, but with the additional challenge of extreme isolation across different departments and even across offices in the same department.This culture was contrasted with serious issues, such as over-work and burnout from undergrads, grads, and faculty alike as well as high cost of living (Corvallis is very rent-burdened). As someone who believes that such issues often have systemic causes and that we have to work together if we want to make things better, I worked hard to break up the individualism and build community. In addition to working in my department to bring people together, I organized events with the goal of bridging inter-department divides and connecting grads to discuss their shared challenges. I also discussed systemic issues with undergrads, grads, and faculty together. One example of this work was IRB-approved research I did into calculus student's experiences with the course structure. That research stemmed from department discussions on the calculus homework and grading systems and the resulting paper I co-authored with another grad student.
Education studies portfolio
Broad takeaways
I was in school each year from 2004 to 2026. And during that enormous amount of time as a student, tutor, teaching assistant, and education researcher, I have learned a lot of key things about teaching and learning:- Connecting learning with the students' lives. Too often, formal education presents knowledge as abstract, isolated, and valuable only within the classroom itself. When students experience education in this way, coursework can easily become something to complete rather than something to carry forward. I hope to continue helping students see how mathematical ideas connect to their academic interests, professional aspirations, and everyday experiences. These connections provide students with reasons to care about what they are learning beyond earning grades, cultivating the kind of intellectual investment that supports deeper and more lasting learning. This aspiration is informed by educational thinkers such as Paulo Freire and Alasdair MacIntyre, both of whom emphasize that education should be understood as part of a meaningful human life rather than as a collection of disconnected academic exercises.
- Building cooperators. Mathematics, the main subject I teach, is often perceived as an individual pursuit, but genuine learning frequently depends upon collaboration, discussion, and the willingness to work through difficult ideas with others. Beyond its pedagogical value, learning to cooperate well contributes to students' broader personal development. Productive relationships with others are central to human flourishing, and treating others with respect, patience, and generosity is an important educational aim in its own right. Following thinkers such as Harry Brighouse, I believe education should prepare students not only to master disciplinary knowledge but also to participate responsibly and constructively in shared intellectual and civic life.
- Experimenting with teaching methods. Although higher education has seen important innovations in pedagogy, many of its dominant instructional practices remain remarkably unchanged, and meaningful experimentation is often discouraged by institutional incentives that reward consistency over innovation. Yet teaching is a practice that benefits from careful reflection, revision, and a willingness to take informed risks. As I gain experience, I hope to continue treating my classroom as a place where new approaches can be thoughtfully tested and evaluated, whether through changes in course structure, assessment, classroom discussion, or the use of technology.
Projects and experience
Can Oregon State University's (OSU) math department improve it's homework system? As a graduate teaching assistant at OSU, I collaborated with another student, Bailey Sharon, to explore alternatives to the homework system used in the main calculus sequence (trigonometry through differential equations). We wrote an unpublished paper on these alternatives and presented it to other students with the goal of sparking discussion. Should I continue towards a PhD, I hope to build off of this work and collaborate with the department to change things for the better. Click here to read our homework paper!
Fundamental philosophical disagreements in education research. My final MS presentation explored how philosophical ideas can be used to understand and explain parts of math curriculum, math teaching, and empirical math education research. Specifically, I asked "What are math education researchers doing to combat the fact that every ordinary person hates math?" and the related question "Why do we still use lecture, teaching math to adults in the same way they taught math to children over a century ago?" I answer these questions by applying Thomas Kuhn's notion of paradigm and adapting Alasdair MacIntyre's history of moral inquiry. See the next project for more info!
Studying the philosophy of education and curriculum. My MS presentation was in large part the result of years of passionate reading in my personal time on the philosophy of education and curriculum. In addition to coursework in education, I have read such texts as Siegel (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education, Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Slattery, Curriculum Development in the Postmodern Era, and Jacobs (ed.) Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation. I am currently exploring how these topics might be discussed in entertaining video content similar to Climate Town.
Studying teaching. At OSU, I have taken several courses in which I learned how to be a better teacher. By participating in the ELITE-PD program, I have developed my pedagogy to be more evidence-based through the discussion and implementation of more active and inclusive teaching practices. This program also exposed me to frequent classroom observations and feedback from others, enabling me to refine my approach over time. At the same time, I have nearly completed OSU's Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching (GCCUT), through which I've learned more about various theories of teaching and learning and course design.
Philosophy portfolio
Broad takeaways
Philosophy is fascinating to me. On the one hand, you get to discuss fundamentally important questions such as "What does it mean to live a good life?" or "How do you tell knowledgeable experts from fraudsters?" or "How should I educate my child?" On the other hand, when you disagree with someone, debate seems to be interminable, go around and around in circles. Here's what I've learned from my time there:- Empathetic understanding and critical self-reflection. Few experiences have shaped my philosophical worldview more than my time auditing a class taught by Dr. Sharyn Clough at the Peace Literacy Institute and reading the books of Alasdair MacIntyre. Largely, this shift has culminated in a greater appreciation for empathetic listening—trying to understand people you disagree with from their perspective and being able to repeat their thoughts back to them in words they would recognize as their own. During and since my time in Dr. Clough's class, I've tried to practice these skills and become someone who is much more keen on discovering my own ignorance than I am in pointing out the ignorance of others. This involves values of open-mindedness, honesty, and humility. When discussing school exams, for example, I might realize that there's a problem with exams I hadn't considered, or maybe my proposed solution had a fatal error I was ignoring. If I really care about improving exams, I have to be able to identify problems even when that means admitting I was wrong.
- Cultural appreciation. Another thing Alasdair MacIntyre has revealed to me is the importance of social and cultural parts of life on shaping fundamental aspects of each person's worldview. He emphasizes several implications of this which I am trying to take to heart. Mainly, I have become much keener on understanding different cultures and traditions better through talking to people outside of my culture and learning more history, philosophy, and anthropology from non-western perspectives.
- Clear communication. Because it's so easy to misunderstand one-another, philosophy cares a lot about clarity. For example, let's say you and I are talking about exams and we agree that "exams suck and should be improved." Even if we agree on that slogan, we might disagree on very important details: What sucks about the exams? Do they suck for students, teachers, or administrators? Does the type or format of the exam matter? If we don't agree on these details, working towards a solution that satisfies both of us might be impossible.
Papers
I've practiced communication and critical thinking mostly by writing papers. Here are a few topics I've written about!What's the deal with implications? I have co-authored a paper with Dr. Lars Enden on teaching introductory logic. In formal logic, there's a relation that represents "if..., then..." statements, and it behaves counterintuitively. Lars and I argue that the usual ways of teaching this relation are bad, and we present a better one. Click here to read my logic paper!
Are brains just computers? One area of philosophy, metaphysics, contains the philosophy of mind. This field asks questions like "do we have souls?" and "what is consciousness?" I discuss the question of whether we could be conscious as just a bunch of atoms grouped together in a brain—no soul necessary. Click here to read my mind paper!
How does art... work? A vast region of philosophy is dedicated to understanding symbols like words, sentences, and images. Philosophy of art falls into this category. I examine one perspective on how art works and relate it to an art piece from the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. Click here to read my art paper!
If God exists, why do bad things happen to good people? You know, there's been a lot of fighting as a result of religion. So, I'm just gonna go ahead and solve all of the problems and make everyone happy. It feels like nobody else is going to do it, so I might as well give it a shot!* This was my first philosophy paper. I wrote it for my favorite class I've ever taken: a seminar taught by Dr. Lars Enden. Click here to read my paper on God!
*This is a joke.
Coursework and reading.
My coursework and reading has covered informal, formal, and mathematical logic, epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, metametaphysics and ontology, art, language, education, and more. If you want the full details, check out my complete list of coursework on the academics page.In addition to those courses, I've done extensive reading in the ethics, epistemology, and—my favorite—the philosophy of education. I also worked through every exercise in Mathematical Logic Through Python by Yannai A. Gonczarowski and Noam Nisan, which was very fun. You can see the result of that work at this GitHub repository.
Mathematics portfolio
Broad takeaways
Look, I know a lot of math. So, if you find a bunch of different simply connected topological spaces and you need someone to compute their fundamental groups, I'm your guy.* But studying math has given me skills that are more broadly applicable to my life. Here are my main takeaways:- Understanding numbers and models. My math background includes a variety of applied areas such as probability, statistics and data science, and differential equations. In these areas, success is determined by how well you understand the numbers or models you've been given. What does the data mean? How does this equation model the housing consumption of a family? Getting answers to these questions can take some pretty sophisticated analysis, but the results yield insight into what the data actually says and how to approach the problem in the first place.
- Logical problem-solving. Learning math is best done by doing math, and that means solving a lot of problems. Math is also an extension of logic, so that means solving problems precisely, clearly, and carefully. This is not an irrelevant skill. Breaking down a problem into pieces, considering each tool in your arsenal, and thinking carefully about the perceived roadblocks, are all crucial parts of solving any problem.
*This is a joke.
