endeavors. The rest of the year I work for the Los Angeles County Fire Department as an ocean lifeguard, tutor in the Los Angeles area (Westside), lead outdoor trips for National Outdoor Leadership School, and spend some time traveling the planet.

 In 2007, I decided to take a break from classroom teaching to pursue other interests in education.  While I enjoy working with students on a grand scale I feel that students thrive in both individualized and small group settings.  In addition, I feel it is necessary to expose students to learning in an outdoor environment enhancing their critical thinking skills.  Since June 2007, I have been working on building a career in tutoring and outdoor education providing me with the opportunity to work with students in a smaller instructional setting as well as to teach outdoors. 

I have found that my active lifestyle, my prior experience as a student-athlete, and my thirst for knowledge has given me the means to relate to several of my students.  I enjoy playing outdoors and participate in a multitude of activities both on land and in water.  I love to surf, free/SCUBA dive, and sea kayak.  One can also find me climbing a rock or an icy waterfall or a mountain as well as find me exploring the back country.  During the winters I spend a lot of my free time alpine/telemark skiing and snowboarding.  When I am not physically active I am usually reading a book or scientific publication or writing poetry.  All in all, I am big kid at heart that is simply curious about the natural world.  My experiences have served me well in education in that I can often find a way to relate the content standards to the student’s prior knowledge.

In addition to my current active lifestyle, I spent twelve years swimming and playing water polo competitively at the high school and college levels.  As such, I have firsthand knowledge of what it is like to juggle the numerous demands of the student-athlete.  With the help of my coaches and teachers I was able to build up the skills needed to be successful in both arenas.  My main purpose for choosing to walk along my current path is to “pay-it-forward” and pass on the life skills needed to be successful in today’s world as well as inspire others to be passionate about the outdoors.