Academic Achievement Center (AAC) tutor Luke Guy grew up in Fitzgerald, Georgia on a farm with both parents, a younger brother, and two dogs. As a high school student Luke admits that he was always gifted in math and science and didn’t have to study much for the first two years. In college, being smart without putting in the work wasn’t enough to succeed. He had to study hard. In high school Luke was recruited by his math teacher to tutor other students after class and with her help, they built websites for geometry and algebra with work problems and lessons. Later, in college, Luke was once again recruited by his math teacher (this time a calculus professor!) to tutor.
Luke says that he’s always loved to tutor and help others in general. Tutors are people he looks up to. He works Monday through Wednesday (10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and 5 p.m. -7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays). He stays pretty busy, especially in the spring, when many freshmen realize the AAC is available. He tutors algebra, trigonometry, math up to calculus 1, both biologies, all the chemistries up to biochem 1, genetics, ecology and evolution. He feels like Khan Academy, SymboLab, and Chemistry LibreTexts are good online tools for these topics.
Even if a student comes in less than prepared or with a subject he doesn’t tutor (like Quantitative Methods in Forest Resources) Luke finds a way to make it work. As long as a student has notes and at least the name of what they’re working on, he can find practice problems and help a student through them.
As a biology major applying for med school this semester, Luke is often studying for the MCAT. While preparing for the MCAT takes up most of his time, when he’s not studying he enjoys fishing, hunting, writing poetry, playing the guitar, and reading (especially fantasy). Right now Luke is reading “Stoic Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius and “Twelve Rules for Life” by Jordan Peterson. He is also the president of ABAC Gives Back, the vice president of Tri-Beta, and the vice president of Advancing Towards Occupations in Medicine (ATOM).
Despite these many commitments, Luke is still a dedicated tutor. He has been with the AAC for two years, and he is also taking on the role as an ESL (English as a Second Language) tutor. After all this time he still seems to take pride in his job. When asked what his favorite part of tutoring was, he said, “There’s nothing better than when you’re tutoring someone and it starts to click for them and you realize that they understand it better now.”
When asked what advice he’d give a shy student about coming to the tutoring center he said, “I know there are people that are not social butterflies and have a hard time talking to people, but they should realize that we’re here to help. For most of us this is what we love to do. We enjoy tutoring, so they shouldn’t feel scared to come in here. Y’know, I’ve gotten tutored myself, I’m a tutor and I’ve gotten tutored. When I took physics, I needed tutoring myself, so you shouldn’t feel scared to come up here.” He also says that when he tutors, he first tries to find some common ground with people, so the session goes easier.
Though Luke is (hopefully) leaving soon for med school, he says that he’s never once regretted not transferring from ABAC after completing his core – something he once considered doing. He says his advisor Dr. Beals talked to him about staying and afterwards he fell in love with the community feel of ABAC. Now that he is nearly done with his undergraduate degree, everyone at the Stallion wishes Luke luck with his MCAT and application to med school!
