"My name is Jessica and I went back to school to get a Masters degree more than 20 years after getting my undergraduate degree in English. I began my Masters degree in Library and Information Science right when the pandemic began in 2020. It was challenging to remember how to be a student after so long, and also suddenly my hybrid program was 100% digital learning. This presented an additional challenge for me.

I learned a lot about library science during grad school, but I especially learned how to be successful as a student. I’m very proud of my 4.0 GPA in my program, because I struggled with procrastination as an adult student. I found many ways of dealing with it, including the importance of academic planning.

After I graduated with my masters degree, I began tutoring college-aged students on a volunteer basis remotely through a partnership with the State Library of Oregon. I helped students across the world who had logged into their school’s library website to chat with a librarian. They were often panicking because they had a paper due and hadn’t even started researching their topic yet. I helped students learn not only how to access their library’s databases, but also how to access learning resources that they didn’t know existed through their library.

After graduation, I also worked as a K-2 reading specialist in person through a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District. I helped students after school who needed extra support with their reading, writing, and homework, in small groups and one-on-one. While younger students have different academic needs and goals than college students, they share a need to be listened to and supported emotionally.

No matter what your age, I want you to feel more supported in your academic goals after working with me. I specialize in academic planning, how to beat procrastination, reading, writing, editing, and academic research of any kind. I truly relate with my students because I’ve been a student so recently," less...