Hume Tutor Spotlight
Spring Quarter 2025
Class Year? Sophomore
Major? Computer Science & Linguistics
Eli Browne, Undergraduate Peer Writing Tutor
On why he joined Hume:
My PWR professor from fall quarter reached out to me and said, “Based on the writing that you submitted to me and how you and your peers handled peer-editing in class, I feel like you would be a really good fit for tutoring at Hume.” I saw that and I thought it sounded interesting because in high school I worked as a peer tutor, and it was work that I really enjoyed. I loved getting to meet students and read their work, so I figured I might as well apply to Hume and see how it goes. And now I’ve been tutoring since the start of this year, and I’ve really been enjoying it.
On his tutoring style:
My goal is to meet the student where they’re at and see what their specific goals are for the session. So when tutees come in, I say, “Hi,” get to know them, talk about their assignment, and why they’re interested in it, and then after that it’s more a question of what their actual goals are. What can I do to be the most helpful for you? My goal is to adapt to whatever their goals are for the session. So if it’s small edits for cohesion and style or if it’s helping write an outline for a paper, regardless of what they want to do, I’m up for it.
On the highlights of his Hume experience:
I would say it’s the little things, honestly, that I really enjoy about Hume. I really enjoy the conversations you have with your coworkers on shift, or when someone comes in with an essay and it’s about something you’ve never heard about before and it’s such an interesting topic. You get to ask them questions and see how interested they are in their topic and how much they are able to talk about it in detail. And then you convert their expertise into their writing. That’s what I think the most rewarding part of being a tutor at Hume is.
On how tutoring has shaped his Stanford experience:
Always staying sharp with writing, always being in the practice of writing, is something that I think is very helpful. Because you’re always going to be involving writing in some classes, Hume has been great for me because it’s exposed me to a bunch of different styles of editing, styles of proofreading, ways to approach different tasks, or ways to edit different tasks. So if I’m ever feeling challenged by a writing assignment, I can go back and think about what Hume has taught me, or how would I address this if I was a tutee coming in with the same concern. Being able to look at writing assignments with that new perspective has been something that I think has really benefited me in terms of my academics.
I really enjoy having a space where I can focus on writing, the craft of writing, and walk through other people’s writing.