Gordy started working as a tutor in high school, when he was asked by a teacher to start and lead an ACT tutoring group, which means that he has been working in test prep for over two decades. At the Princeton Review, he was trained as an SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT Psych/Soc instructor, and he has worked with at least 1,000 students to improve their test scores. He was the Berkeley office’s nominee for Teacher of the Year in 2000.

He has also worked for private after-school and weekend programs, as well as non-profit groups such as Upward Bound and local charter schools, where he has developed his own style and multiple curricula for SAT and college essay prep. He continues to teach and tutor, with students across the age and preparedness spectrum, as they prepare to enter college; medical, business, law, and dental school; and graduate programs across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. He has extensive tutoring and teaching experience with English language learners, student athletes, low-income communities and communities of color, and students with learning disabilities.

This range of expertise and experience reflects his own educational trajectory. Gordy earned a B.S. from the University of Michigan (’98) in Cellular and Molecular Biology and sat for the MCAT in April of 1998. Instead of pursuing medical school, he used his training in science (he co-authored a published paper on cell signaling through UM’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) to work in biotech for two years while he researched his next career moves. His second major at UM, in Germanic Languages and Literatures, made it possible for him to do some freelance technical translation work on the side.

Since moving to California in 1998, Gordy has completed two Master’s Degrees, in Education (Language, Literacy, and Culture) at UC Berkeley (M.A. ’04), and in Counseling Psychology at the Wright Institute (also in Berkeley; M.A. ’13). He is currently wrapping up his dissertation, also in Education, and hopes to complete his Ph.D. in 2016, while accruing hours for an M.F.T. license (Marriage and Family Therapy), which he hopes to finish in 2017. He is currently a registered M.F.T. Intern in California, and has had substantial success working with adolescent boys and girls who struggle with drug dependency and related psychological disorders. His most recent work on UC Berkeley’s campus includes teaching and co-teaching positions in STEM teacher development as well as graduate-level statistics and data analysis, and, currently, an undergraduate composition course in Asian American Studies.

Gordy’s passions clearly lie in education, human development, and career development. He appreciates every opportunity to work with people who are focused on moving forward in their lives, whether that be in school, work, relationships, or their own well-being.