Tara Aranha is a Bay Area native, born and raised in Berkeley, CA. Like many of the students she works with, she attended Berkeley High School, King Middle School, and the School of the Madeline. Through her 8 years of tutoring experience with local students, she has maintained and grown her connections with students, teachers, and curriculum at these schools. For the past four years, she has additionally grown similar connections with Albany High School, Albany Middle School, St. Mary’s, and El Cerrito High School. She is very familiar with supporting middle and high school students and parents with the CPM, Engage NY, and MVP Common Core curricula, in addition to more traditional curricula still used in some local schools.

She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she studied both Political Economy and Education, with a concentration in Socioeconomic Inequality and Public Policy. Education has long been a passion of hers, which she has realized not only through math tutoring but also through work in several East Bay schools and youth enrichment programs, including BUILD at Washington Elementary School in Berkeley, Boost@BerkeleyHaas, fieldwork in math classrooms through the UC Berkeley School of Education, and Bridge at Berkeley High School. Tara additionally served as Lead Teaching Assistant at Berkeley Business Academy for Youth at Haas School of Business for three years, teaching middle and high school students the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, business, and critical thinking. Through these experiences, she have developed strong skills working with elementary, middle, and high schools students, as well as students from diverse economic, social, and learning backgrounds.

In a system which often leaves students feeling disempowered and discouraged when it comes to math, it is Tara's mission to share her passion for the subject with young students. This comes not only by exposing them to the material, but engaging them in it in ways that make math relevant, accessible, and applicable in regard to both their present experiences and future goals. Therefore, she is experienced in developing customized tutoring sessions around a student’s particular needs and objectives. This has included, but not been limited to, preparing for homework help, test prep, advanced math placements tests, SAT Math, catching up students who have fallen behind to grade level, and preventing “Summer Slide.”