Chloe is one of our inspirational tutors and mentors at Art of Smart who recently won the prestigious Coach of the Year Award for 1 on 1 Tutoring in 2020.
This year will be Chloe’s third year with Art of Smart where she tutors all levels of HSC English, Business Studies, Legal Studies and PDHPE. Chloe is currently a fourth year Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Arts (Gender Studies) student at Macquarie University.
Read below to find out why our students voted Chloe our Coach of the Year for 1 on 1 tutoring!
Chloe, what do you love about being a tutor?
I think the fact that it gives me an opportunity to be a mentor to my students and to really help them. It also lets me be the mentor I wish that I had going through HSC because it can be pretty tough.
I love just being able to see them succeed, find confidence and unlock that in the abilities that they have!
What are your passions and hobbies?
One of my passions is probably running. I run marathons and I’m starting to run more ultra marathons, so on the trails and stuff. I love that, and I also enjoy hiking and just being outdoors really.
What’s been your biggest achievement so far with running?
Probably when I finished my first 50km and I came second overall in the women’s marathon. That was just so unexpected and I really enjoyed it!
Tell us about a particularly memorable moment with your student.
I think probably with Liv when she started asking me more about Gender Studies, because it’s one of the degrees I’m studying.
She asked me if she could read my major work for my HSC and it was just so sweet to know that she was so invested in the content. It was great to see her engaging in it and wanting to learn more — independent of what she had to study for school.
Why do you think it’s important for people to engage with gender studies theory and work, Chloe?
Well I think it’s a study that goes beyond any binary notions of like male or female or however you’d like to identify. It’s the study of how we interact as humans and it allows us to consider our place more deeply in our world, on both a psychological and social level, and understand why we act in certain ways.
I’d like people just to think about their place within their gender more deeply and how that affects their decisions in everyday life and also to be respectful of other people’s views on gender!
What are some ways people could get more involved or introduced?
Just by reading more — that’s something I also encourage all my students to do just across English and I think that’s why English is so important because wider reading just allows you to understand different viewpoints.
No man is an island. So, the more you can read, the more you can understand different perspectives. You can understand why maybe if you say something, it’s hurtful to someone else or it’s triggering.
Reading allows you to be more informed in the decisions you make in your own life too.
It can be as simple as just following a page on Instagram that posts some quotes from different theorists and composers, to allow you to consider things you once didn’t before!
Any favourites of yours, Chloe?
I write pieces for the Australian Feminists here and there (previously known as the Sydney Feminists) and they post a variety of different articles on different gender theories and also more anecdotal pieces about people’s personal experiences.
I think they are really interesting because they’re backed up by people. There tends to be more academic styles of writing but they’re written in a way that is still somewhat easy to read and understand.
Tell us about a student success story.
All my students did super well last year and I was super proud of all them, but there were two standouts for me.
One of them was Jack who was more of a science mathsy kinda guy — super bright in terms of tech and science and maths and all those areas. He was just struggling to conceptually understand English and the more abstract nature of it.
But, we’ve been working together for his HSC and he came so so far and it was within like a matter of months that he was really starting to engage with content and understand how a thesis is constructed and how you write a really strong essay.
What do you think is the key to good teaching?
I think just being super open and honest with the student and building that relationship so that you can make them really comfortable with you — so they don’t feel insecure or can speak up when they don’t know about something.
Just knowing what the student wants to get out of it too — like let’s be realistic, at the end of the day what do you wanna get out of this and enjoy doing?
Also, working towards the bigger picture of “Yeah, let’s get some good results but also, hey I want you to be a good writer”, so when you go to uni or when you go into the workforce, any skills you need for that, you’ll have them and they’ll be super solid.
What’s something that a student has taught you?
I think to probably be patient with myself as well and invest in my own writing skills continually. I think this definitely comes back to my student Liv from last year because she was always asking for any articles I’ve written or any pieces I’d done or published.
She was really invested in seeing me continuing to develop my own writing skills which is something I’ve definitely neglected over the previous years going to uni and then working as a paralegal as well.
It was just kind of nice to just put it into perspective and I think that’s something I miss and need to get back to doing more, so it was nice she brought it up. To see her excitement to read it as well was really nice and really encouraging!
Chloe, what’s your long-term professional goal?
I would like to have a role I guess, in terms of policy and bring my gender studies side into it and maybe even discrimination. Although I’m not too sure yet, so something along those lines is what I’m thinking.
I’m just going to kind of ride the wave and see what happens after I get my practicing certificate and where the opportunities fall, I’ll just follow it from there!
What is something on your bucket list?
Definitely to go overseas and run some of the crazy ultra marathons over there! I would’ve loved to have tried to do it this year but obviously under the current circumstances that’s not possible.
There are some races overseas that are like the Western States ultra marathon race — there’s also Badwater 135 which is 135 miles and then the European mountain races as well. I’d love to have a go at all that stuff in the US and Europe.
They’re definitely on my bucket list — probably number one!
Looking for some extra help with HSC English?
We have an incredible team of HSC English tutors and mentors like Chloe who are new HSC syllabus experts!
We can help you master your HSC English related text and ace your upcoming HSC English assessments with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at our state of the art campus in Hornsby!
We’ve supported over 6,000 students over the last 11 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 19%!
To find out more and get started with an inspirational HSC English tutor and mentor, get in touch today or give us a ring on 1300 267 888!
Gabrielle Wong is currently the Digital Marketing Assistant at Art of Smart. She is a second year student at the University of Sydney studying a Bachelor of Arts/Advanced Studies majoring in Media and Communications and Marketing.
