Keith Barnatchez

Coming from a family of teachers -- my mom teaches kindergarten and my father taught high school students -- I have always enjoyed the challenge of teaching, especially concepts in math, statistics and economics. For a long time, I struggled with math concepts. While still in high school I was ready to give up on the subject entirely, until taking a precalculus course with a phenomenal instructor who completely changed my outlook. Since then, I have sought out challenging courses in mathematics and statistics, as well as opportunities to help students struggling with these subjects.

While studying at Colby, where I ran track and majored in mathematical economics and statistics, I was able to work as a teaching assistant for numerous courses, including introductory statistics, Calculus I, and macroeconomic theory. A major part of my job in all of these courses was holding office hours, I would meet with students to go over challenging course concepts and discuss methods for solving problems on their assignments. When teaching, I try to put myself in the perspective of the student learning the material for the first time: there are many steps and "tricks" commonly used in quantitative courses that are not intuitive, yet often breezed over by instructors. I try to go over these steps in great detail, while also keeping the bigger picture of the overall problem and its applications in context.

Since graduating from Colby, I have been working as an economics research assistant. I feel very fortunate that I'm able to use the quantitative and computational skills I developed as a student in my work every, and I'm excited to be able to work with students as a tutor to help them develop similar skills!