Curious Cardinals Mentor

Henry W.

he/him • majoring in English • class of 2020

PRO TIP:

When evaluating whether a mentor would be a good match for your student keep in mind that the greatest leading indicator of success is how well a mentor and their mentee get along.

Questions to ask yourself:

Would the student find this person inspiring?
Do they share any interests, hobbies, or lived experiences?

EDUCATION

2009 - 2013 • Dos Pueblos High School • Goleta, California

2019 - 2020 • University of Oxford • Oxford, England

I’ve been a Curious Cardinals mentor since March 2024. I am passionate about mentoring students in the areas of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Business, Negotiation, Art History, History, Philosophy, Literature, World Cultures, Government & Policy, Journalism, Current Events, Debate, Public Speaking, Reading, History, Executive Function, Essay Writing, Creative Writing & Poetry, Grammar & Spelling, Literary Analysis, Reading Comprehension, College Essay Writing, Academic Coaching, and Launch a Website.

Henry W. (IN A NUTSHELL)

Hello, I'm Henry! After studying English at Berkeley (Bachelor's with High Honors) and Oxford (Master's with Distinction), I embarked on a career as a professional writer, working for a range of start-ups, universities, and publications. Through these experiences, I developed a keen appreciation of the importance of language in all fields—and a unique sense of the strategies held in common by successful academic, technical, and business writing.

Now, with ten years of experience as a tutor, I enjoy teaching a wide range of subjects, covering college admissions, test prep, long term passion projects, and advanced coursework in the humanities and social sciences. In all of these fields, my focus is the same: helping students form an intense, personal, and lasting relationship with language. As a tutor, I've helped students tackle most major humanities and social sciences exams; as a writing instructor, I've taught courses at universities and high schools everywhere from Riyadh to Seoul; as an admissions consultant, I've helped dozens of students get accepted to undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard, Oxford, and other top programs; and as a debate coach, I've taught hundreds of students, including many state champions, at Berkeley, Stanford, and Andover. I tutored online consistently throughout my two degrees, so I have developed a set of strategies to help students get the most out of each session.

Across all of these experiences, I have learned that engaging, project-based instruction always leads to the best results. So whether you want to publish a piece of creative writing, start an academic blog for your research, get into a top college, or just ace your AP coursework, I'm looking forward to helping you use those longer term goals to build skills incrementally!

Here are a few recent projects that I've enjoyed helping students with:

- Writing an academic blog post on AI regulation policies
- Self-publishing a collection of short stories
- Writing the script for a podcast episode on Nietzsche
- Creating a content strategy for a student's new business

Watch Henry W. break down a subject they’re passionate about.

WHY THIS MATTERS:

Our mentorship sessions happen virtually over Zoom. It’s important to get a sense of how someone’s personality can come through on a video call. The best way to ensure your student is excited about learning is to have someone on the other side that they look forward to talking to.

What advice would you give your middle or high school self?

How does your heritage or identity impact your teaching style?

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love camping and mountaineering, especially around the UK.