Health Professions Applications Tutoring

First day of operations: Monday, May 20

Last day of operations: Friday, August 2

Schedule an appointment

During a session, tutors may help medical/dental school applicants to:

• get started with personal statements and supplemental essays by reading and discussing writing prompts, evaluating personal, academic, and clinical experiences, brainstorming outlines.
• explore ways to shape coherent arguments, make strong use of evidence, work within restrictive word-length requirements.
• consider questions about depth of analysis, organization, thesis statements, audience expectations, paragraph development, style, sentence structure.
• identify patterns of errors in grammar or usage and develop effective strategies for line-editing. 

1. Bring 1 essay per 60-minute session; schedule additional sessions as necessary.
2. Bring 2 specific questions; sessions are most productive when you are an active participant.
3. Seek out multiple perspectives; you may meet no more than 3 times with the same tutor on the same essay. 

Schedule an appointment

Rocío Corral García

PhD Student, Literatures in English

I’m a PhD candidate in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell interested in the Anglo-Spanish relationships during the Early Modern Period. More specifically, my dissertation project examines the mechanisms of reception history to investigate the theoretical and conceptual topic of female sovereignty, paying particular attention to the early modern stage’s ability to generate some of the terms and tropes in which political power is theorized.

I have worked as both a FWS instructor and multilingual writing tutor at Cornell for four years, and enjoy assisting writers throughout the writing process—from the early outlining stages to the revisionary ones. In each session, I aim to create better writers, not just better writing, by fostering a comfortable yet dynamic space for peer dialogue. Whether strengthening arguments or identifying patterns in grammatical mistakes, I work to empower students with needed strategies and knowledge. I enjoy assisting students with academic papers, personal statements, application for internships as well as graduate and professional programs at various stages of their projects. Generally, I find my experience as a writing tutor immensely rewarding, especially when students, who openly claim they “could not write,” walk out of a tutoring session feeling more equipped and confident on their writing.

Chijioke Onah

PhD Student, Literatures in English

I am a PhD candidate in the Literatures in English department where my research focuses broadly on violence. Previously, I have worked on the mediation and memorialization of the Chibok girls kidnapping by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria. My dissertation project will be moving away from political violence to environmental violence—which is interesting to me because ecological violence may not always offer the same kind of spectacle that political violence offers. For example, I will be focusing on the (bio)political dynamics that influences the movement of toxic waste materials from the countries in the global North to African and Black communities globally. I want to see how this process can be used to understand the condition of Blackness and American empire-making globally. 

I have studied in different parts of the world before coming to Cornell. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in English and History at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. After that, I studied for my Masters degree at Goethe University of Frankfurt with a semester stay at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In the US, I studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before coming to Cornell. These international experiences influence my approach to writing as I am attentive to not only working with multicultural populations, but I also help my students to craft their essays in a way that is culturally sensitive and globally conscious. Having taught at Cornell’s First Year Writing Seminar for a year now, coupled with my experience interning at the Knight Institute last summer, I have worked with several students on different writing projects, including applying for medical schools or gaining healthcare summer internships. I am delighted to work with students to help them achieve their dreams. 

Donny Persaud

PhD Candidate, Science & Technology Studies

I am a 4th year PhD candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies. My dissertation research focuses on the launch and development of new Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellations such as Starlink. LEO constellations have led to new, overlapping conflicts concerning the viability of LEO internet connectivity, the future of astronomical research, and how outer space will be framed in future environmental legislation. My interest lies in how actors navigate and contest the claims of ubiquitous, physically unbound internet connectivity provided by LEO constellations and how this form of infrastructure sees discursive and legal reimaginings of what constitutes nature. I completed a B.Sc. in Physical and Environmental Geography at the University of Toronto, a MA in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and worked at a community newspaper in Toronto, Canada. At Cornell, I have taught Writing in the Majors courses such as ‘Ethical Issues in Health and Medicine’ as well as two First-Year Writing Seminars called ‘Digital Infrastructures’. My instruction style emphasizes clarity, structure, and simplicity in one’s writing to ensure that complex ideas can be easily understood by readers. I enjoy working with students at all stages of the writing process and am comfortable working with writers coming from any discipline or level of English proficiency.

Raunak Sen

PhD Candidate, Neurobiology and Behavior

I am a 4th year PhD candidate in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior; however, I am an evolutionary biologist by training. I am broadly interested in how new species form and currently work on a system of Hawaiian crickets to ask questions on how species within the group are reproductively isolated from each other. I have previously worked on fish behavioral ecology and genome editing in fishes.

I have been involved in reading and writing on STEM topics for the past eight years. Throughout my time in Cornell, I have taught several Writing in the Majors’ courses and a First-Year Writing Seminar. As a teacher in those courses, I have enjoyed helping students put down their complex ideas on paper in a manner that their intended audience can easily understand. Although my background is in STEM, I have worked with students from all disciplines. I enjoy working with students at all stages of the writing process from brainstorming ideas to final revisions. My biggest strengths lie in constructing arguments, organizing essays, and writing for intended audiences. English is my second language, and I understand the needs of multilingual writers.

Cornell Writing Centers

• Meet with a peer writing tutor
• Writing Personal Statements & Application Essays

Health Professions Advising Center