Testimonials

Steven is one of the best tutors I’ve had because he really listens. He has helped me a lot with vocabulary and literature, like the language of Shakespeare, something I didn’t understand before.

Steven is also a fun tutor, a cool person, and just a really nice teacher in general!

Prit

After a recent promotion, I decided to find a tutor to help me get over my fear of writing. As a member of upper management, it’s not enough anymore just to give out information. I need to make sure my staff understands the decisions I make and why things are the way they are.

I'm glad I found Steven because my writing has already improved in the short time that I've been working with him. I've always had anxiety about writing, but Steven creates a safe space for me to crawl out of my hole. He challenges me but he doesn’t let me flounder, and he gives me candid feedback, which I need.

Grace

As one of my forty tutors at San Jose State University, Steven Rudnick worked with a multi-cultural and multi-national population of students at risk of dropping out of college: physically disabled, learning disabled, low income or the first in their family to go to college.

Steven is sensitive to the unique educational needs of his students. In addition, he shows much flexibility, humor, and genuine caring for his students, who consistently evaluate him as an excellent tutor. He is dependable, trustworthy, organized, and able to work well without constant supervision.

Steven is that rare individual who embodies what is vital in an employee and desirable in a person, and I have no reservation whatsoever in recommending him highly for any position he chooses to pursue.

Verna L. Benzler

Coordinator, ASPIRE Tutoring Program

San Jose State University

I was pleased with Mr. Rudnick’s work ethic, reliability, and most of all, creativity. It was gratifying to see students become increasingly excited, motivated, and productive in a classroom environment that promoted learning.

Mr. Rudnick’s expectations of his students were high, and he was undaunted by other teachers’ beliefs that students from low-income and minority backgrounds couldn’t achieve. His positive attitude and effective teaching methods resulted in students performing beyond their normal achievement levels.

Anita Canul

Principal

Cureton Elementary School

San Jose

Our son works so much better with Steven than he does with either me or his dad. He brought our reluctant writer out of his shell and helped him find the confidence he needed to write his first speech.

What impressed me most was how invested our son became, making corrections right up until the last minute. It was the first time I saw him care so much about his writing.

Having Steven work with our son relieved us of so much stress! I can't recommend him highly enough.

Holly

My mom got a hold of Steve almost a year ago, and he has been a great help ever since. He guided me through writing an essay about fast fashion, which showed me many new skills I can use when writing future essays.

Steve does not make the work feel hard or pressure you. You take it at your own pace and learn what you need and want to learn.

Steve has a wide variety of writing methods he can teach you. These will all come in handy if you are writing a college application, or just trying to get a good English grade.

Logan

Steven helped me write four college application essays for the University of California and to develop my writing skills. English is my THIRD language, and I was having difficulties writing. I didn’t think I could write something so impressive having just a week before the application was due.

Steven makes the process something fun and enjoyable for you. He gives you the attention you need to achieve your goals.

Francisco

We engaged Steven in mid-March of 2020, pretty late in the academic year, to help our high school freshman with reading Shakespeare. What a great decision that turned out to be!

Steven builds self-confidence in his students by strengthening independent learning instead of spoon-feeding the content. He is an expert on the subject and quickly identified our son’s gaps in understanding and analysis of the play. We started seeing almost instantaneous positive feedback from his teachers.

Sunil

We have been working with Steven since the start of distance learning when my seventh grader needed help with reading comprehension and writing.

Steven’s tutoring sessions are engaging, well-thought-out, and encouraging. His approach to English is unique and innovative and includes creative ways to approach reading and writing. I can tell my child looks forward to his interactions with Steven, and he seems enthusiastic about the assignments and reading.

Steven isn't shy about introducing poetry and other less mainstream forms of writing or literature to instill an appreciation of the myriad expressions of the English language. I recall being intimidated with poetry and more "exotic" literature (e.g., Shakespeare) when younger and wish I had had someone like Steven to introduce me to such things in a relaxed and more approachable way.

Above all, I find Steven to be an engaged and thoughtful tutor who seems invested in the education of his charges. Having worked with other less enthused tutors or even having been the recipient of lackluster and dispassionate instructors or professors in school myself, I think the most valuable trait for Steven as a tutor is that he seems to genuinely care about English and teaching and his tutees. It comes across in his demeanor, his preparedness for each session, and his engagement during the session.

Thomas

In a class of more than 40 upper-division students, most of whom were English majors, Mr. Rudnick was clearly one of the top students, especially outstanding in his articulateness in both the oral and written work. His presentation on Charles Ives and the Concord writers was undoubtedly the best in the class.

Mr. Rudnick writes with fluency as well as precision. Besides, he shows independence of thought and penetrating intelligence.

Like most gifted and independent people, Mr. Rudnick is somewhat unconventional. I have found him, however, in all my dealings with him to be completely reliable, hard-working, and best of all quite original in his approach to the study of literature.

Kiching Kim

Professor of English, San Jose State University

Professor of Korean Literature, University of California, Berkeley

As the pandemic stretched into its sixth month, it became clear that my eleventh-grader needed help with writing and critical thinking.

While the pandemic has been difficult, Steven’s tutoring has been irreplaceable. Going beyond mere writing assignments, Steven incorporates poetry, music, and the visual arts to help build not only my son’s writing, but his overall ability to think, analyze, and look at the world. He has developed a bespoke curriculum to cultivate our son’s development, one that is not only highly personal but also extremely flexible.

Wonderfully helpful also are Steven’s monthly summaries of his lessons.

Michele

Steven has been a tremendous help. I’ve been trying to pass the writing portion of the CBEST for quite some time but kept getting marked down for usage and conventions of English. Steven showed me how to construct an essay and helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

I highly recommend him. His service is top-notch!

Sabrina

Steven is an awesome tutor. He helps me with grammar and schoolwork, but we do cool things, too. We wrote a story together, and I made a chapbook about places in the world I want to travel to.

After a lesson, we sometimes play games, like competing to see who can come up with the most synonyms for a certain word or guessing the answers to Harper's Index. He also sends me interesting books and articles to read on my own.

All in all, Steven is a great tutor, and he's fun, unlike most tutors.

William

Steven Rudnick taught American Literature to a class of forty-five culturally diverse high school students in downtown San Francisco. He was able to gain their confidence and maintain a good rapport with them, but at the same time, his academic standards were high. Students were required to write in class every day, as well as to read and analyze interesting literature that he selected himself.

Mr. Rudnick was punctual, well prepared for his class, and acted in a professional manner. He truly demonstrated a genuine concern for his students, and student evaluations were overwhelmingly
positive.

Pamela Lyau

Director, College for Teens

City College of San Francisco

English is not my first language, but Steve created a comfortable environment where I could learn the complexities of the English language.

Steve is passionate about writing and grammar. His teaching style is geared towards critical thinking and problem solving, with individualized lesson plans and guidance. Each weekly session provided exciting new ways to learn about grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure, which became the foundation of the next lesson.

I passed the CBEST on my next try. Now I teach music in an elementary school while I work on a master's degree in music education.

Endre

I’ve only been working with Steven for one month, and I’ve already learned how to break up my sentences, be more concise, connect my ideas, and write a good conclusion.

Sebastian

Steven has been a godsend. He helped me write an application essay for an Arabic internship in Amman, Jordan, and another one for an application to graduate school.

Steven created a comfortable workspace which allowed me to learn from my mistakes and improve my writing. I strongly recommend him. His teaching style is exquisite.

Javier