Dominique Padurano helps students of all ages develop excellent learning skills, prep for exams, write entrance essays, and excel at school. Whether you have a student going into college, or perhaps you are that student going back to college, Dominique can help. Listen to this insightful conversation and then check out her YouTube channel or reach out to her at her website and see how Dominique can help tutor you for college and life. Learn more about Dominique at her website.
Experts Speak
Tutoring for College and Life with Dominique Padurano
[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the Experts Speak podcast with Michael D'Alon. Each episode features a leading expert who shares helpful insights, practical tips, and memorable stories that will inspire you, educate you, and help you enjoy more success, freedom, and purpose in your life. For the next few minutes, enjoy listening to Experts Speak with Michael D'Alon. And welcome to another episode of Experts Speak. I'm Michael D'Alon. And today, I am talking with Dominic Hotarano. Dominic, first of all, thank you for being my guest today. Thank you for having me, Michael. I'm so excited to be here. You're welcome. It's going to be a great conversation. Dominic goes by Dr. P. And so we're going to call her that because her last name is a little challenging. And she said her students adopted that. So they don't have to say her last name. They just call her Dr. P. And so we'll do that as well, just to stay in that. She runs a company called Crimson Coaching. And so she works with students, really of all ages, not just traditional students, but adult students, going back to college, to help them with learning, to help them with test prep, to help them begin this college and get education. You do so many things. It's hard to summarize it. So I'm going to shut up. I'm going to let you do a little bit of talking and say, Dr. P, how in the world did you get doing what you're doing today? Well, thanks, Michael. So when I graduated from Harvard way back in 1993, I had no idea of what I wanted to do as a job. And I bounced around at different jobs because I didn't really have-- I was the first person in my family to go to college and to go to a college like Harvard, I didn't really have any role models. And then about four years after graduation, my mom said, you've always tutored other kids. Why don't you try teaching? And so I was really pretty desperate, enrolled in a master's in education program. And from the first time I set foot in front of a classroom, I was like, this is why God put me on Earth. This is what I meant to do. So I wound up teaching high school, getting a PhD, then teaching some college, going back to teaching high school. But around the age of 40, I began to want a new challenge. And I had always kind of toyed with the idea of running my own business. And even though I got a PhD in history and loved the subject, when you teach history in school, it's sort of like if Rome doesn't fall by October 27, I am off schedule. And so opening my own tutoring company, Crimson Coaching, in 2014 allows me to not just tutor history, but Spanish, and French, and SAT, and math, and help kids with creative writing for their college application essays. And I get to do something different every day. And that's really why I love it and why I've stuck with it this long. Fascinating. I love that. Thanks for that background. Quite educated, by the way. I don't have many PhDs on my show. All right, so let's talk about how you help students. What are some of the struggles and challenges students? Whether they're traditional students, you know, young people, or old folks like us who go back to school, because you've done it, I've done it, and lots of people do it. What are some of the challenges that they face when they are-- what are they struggling with right before they reach out to start working with you? What's going on? So I would say the overarching-- I mean, every student is different. But every student needs belief in themselves to accomplish their goals. And some students have a bigger sort of challenge with this. For instance, unfortunately, among a lot of girls and young ladies that I see, especially with math, they lack a lot of confidence with that. And they'll say, I just can't do math. And I'll tell them, maybe that was true from every day up until yesterday. Starting from today, we're going to change the script in your mind from, I can't do math to-- if I work hard enough, I can do math. And so getting them to change their mindset is often the first thing. And then just being really kind of crystal clear on what is your goal? You know, some students want a 1,600 SAT score. And that's awesome. But that's not every student's goal, and it shouldn't be. And so that's totally fine, too. So helping them to get clear on their goals and then to set realistic, small, chunk-bite steps towards that goal is really what my job is about. That's very cool. I love how you started with that self-confidence and mindset and math. So my youngest daughter is 13, Jenna. And we were doing a house project the other day. And we were doing math. I was measuring boards to cut them and things. And I was having her write things down. And it was, you know, 13, 4, 8s and all this stuff. And we were adding and subtracting. I said, Jenna, this is math. You use math outside of school, really. And just helping her understand the applicability of just adding a subtraction, you'll be glad to know this. I actually used the Pythagorean theorem a couple weeks ago to figure out an angle in it. Worked, math actually works. Awesome. So many times we come into that. You know, when I was in college, one of my classes was physics, hated physics. I am not a science guy, right? I struggled. I had a little mentor next to me, a student who was brilliant, who got me through that class. Because he understood it and I didn't. And he was just trying to make it real to me at some level. And I think sometimes that's what we need is somebody like you to a tutor to come along and say, no, no, we can do this. Plus maybe look at it in a different way. Here's how this works. And we realize that, oh, I can do that. It's not as bad as I thought it was building that self-confidence so that the next subject, you know, I have foreign language. I have to go learn Latin. What? I can do that, right? Helping them become perpetual self-learning machines. Is that kind of how you see what you do? It is. And the other thing, you know, it's funny. I have a friend from way back in elementary school. We were in a gifted program together. And we're Facebook friends. And recently he posted on Facebook, can someone explain why I needed to take trigonometry in high school? And he's a lawyer now. And I wrote, without trigonometry, you wouldn't have been able to develop the logic that you needed for law school. And I can tell you absolutely as a college counselor, you would have never gotten into Cornell University without having taken it. And so I think it's really developing the habit of mind that math especially can train you to be logical and to problem solve from one step to another. I mean, I was a kid who hated math. But having that, you know, I call it like weightlifting for the brain, having that strong brain going into a school like Harvard really helped me. And that's also part, whether I'm teaching kids math or teaching them writing, I'm trying to teach them skills for life so that eventually they don't need me. And I know that sounds like a crazy business plan. But what's worked for me is that they're so happy that then they refer another student to me. Right, yeah. And that's really how it should be in most business. But especially in education, because you need to train them, you know, we've homeschooled for 20 somewhat years. And we've always said, you know, our philosophy is to teach our children how to be learners. Because if they know how to learn and they have the self-discipline in the mindset, the world is their oyster, right? They can do anything. But it is those personal habits of saying, okay, I have a term paper to do in two months. I'm going to wait for a month and 30 days to start working on it. No, we start today and we do a little bit, but that's a self-discipline habit that applies to every area of life. Is that kind of what you find? - Absolutely. And I mean, part of, you know, another part of what I do is teaching students time management and study skills. And that aspect of, you know, figuring out, well, what can I do on which day? Because maybe some days I have a wrestling tournament all Saturday and I can't work on that day. Well, now I'm going to need to maybe double up on my term paper the other days so I can get it done in two months and not leave it until the night before. - Yeah, yeah. And it's crazy because so much of this seems like common sense, but nobody teaches this. And that's why having a tutor, somebody like you come alongside and just be a voice of reason and a friend and an encourager, a cheerleader, all of that with helping them understand that, yeah, we do need to have to have goals and directions and milestones and habits. And some days you're going to have an off day and that's okay. Let's get back on the stick. And the next days you're right there. So how do you work with students, whether it's traditional students or I know you work with some adult students who are going back to get more degrees and more things? Talk about both of those. Is it a semester long thing, a year long thing? How do you typically work with students? - So it really depends on the need of the students. I mean, sometimes I'll have students come to me just sort of the month before they're applying to college. And it's a very short-term project oriented type of thing once we're done with that project. They say, "Thank you and we'll see you later." Other times, in particular with adult students, for instance, one student I worked with for three years because he did a series of applications, was not successful based on his undergraduate record that happened 35, 40 years ago. And so I said that he should maybe set his sights a little bit lower in terms of the school he wanted to get into and then get 4.0s and then reapply to the school that he wanted to apply to. And so we worked on, you know, after 40 years of not being in the classroom, how do you write a paper? How do you research a paper? You know, all those sort of things, which on top of he was also working, you know, how do you do that, right? - And that's a big, big deal, right? Going back to school is a big, big deal. But even if you're a teenager or a late teen and you're going into college and you're trying to navigate all of that or studying for the state boards or the national boards in nursing or physical therapy or whatever, those are big things that we need, sometimes a voice of reason. We need somebody who's been there who can coach you, who can guide you so that you don't get all stressed out because that can really hurt your chances too because when you get stressed, it starts affecting your mind and yourself talking and your study habits and you go get ice cream instead of your textbook, right? - It's true. And also having a coach that you're meeting with once a week can help keep you accountable, right? Like I'm in a writing class for personal enjoyment, right? And knowing that I have a deadline to produce my 20-page writing sample, really helps keep me accountable. And that's often what it is with a coach as well. So a lot of times, especially older students, when they have so many other things to do, we'll really appreciate that accountability that I can provide. - Yeah, so let's talk about, who's like an ideal client for you if you could wave a magic wand or is, or it could it be anybody? - It could be anybody, but I would say probably the ideal would be a ninth or 10th grader in high school because then by then they usually have some sense of how important high school is that now everything counts as opposed to middle school that doesn't count, right? And most of them are motivated to try to get good grades. And so if I can help build up their academic skills in ninth and 10th grade, and then we go into SAT prep and into college application, having that student for say all four years of high school is, it's really satisfying for me. And it's great for the student because they have a sort of a comfortability with me that by the time they have to bear their soul in their college essay, they feel comfortable doing that because we already know each other so well. - Yeah, and two thoughts here. Do you stay with students when they get into college? Let's say you worked with somebody for a couple of years and they're now in college because that's a whole different world because mom and dad aren't there and all of that. Can you, can you stay with them or how does that work? - So a couple of times, I haven't stayed with them like throughout the four years, but I have worked with three, I call them returning students. Students who I did test prep and/or college essay coaching with as high school students. And then the first one mom called me because the very bright student who got a perfect ACT score almost flunked out of a very selective college because she didn't know how to organize her time and hand in work. And so I was her time management coach. And then the second one I coached her on the GRE exam. And then the third one I helped her with her veterinary school applications for essay writing. So I think again, when you do a good job, as I guess I did, and students feel comfortable with you, they may call you back one, two, three, four years later. - Yeah, that's good, that's very cool. And I love getting the ninth, 10th graders and preparing them because from a parent's standpoint, I mean, you're looking at college scholarships and how am I gonna pay for this silly thing and all that. And if you understand how the game works, if you get better scores on your SATs and your ACTs, you get better scholarships. And that means you don't have to pay as much money. And so there really is a payoff in all of this. And I don't know that that's how you market it, but from a parental standpoint, my sons did really well in the ACTs and their college wasn't fully paid for, but it was close and it really took the burden off me and Jill to go, "Okay, wow, that was amazing." But we did put them through some test prep things, similar to a little different, because it helped them gain the confidence to help them understand how to do it. And it helped our pocketbook. So I think some people don't really understand, they just think, "Well, that's just an expense." No, no, no, no, no. Yes, it's an expense, but it's a payoff. There's a return, not only in finances, but in the character of your child and in the confidence of your child for life. Is that what you find? - I tried to explain that to people. Maybe I can use this little clip and show it to parents, but you know, I once had a boy, they spent $2,000 on an essay package with me. And I'm not saying it was just the essay package, but it helped to get him a full ride to college. So $2,000 translated into $240,000. Like, I don't know of any Bitcoin or stock market, you know, stock that is going to do that. And it's, you know, I think, especially now with tests being optional at some schools, although I never advise a student not to take the SAT or ACT. You know, I do, and now many more colleges are requiring them. And of course, as you mentioned, scholarships depend on them, but they all need a college essay. And so especially for families that aren't applying with a test score, your essay needs to be that much better in order to stand out to admissions officers. - Right. And you can either shoot in the dark, throw darts at a dart board in the dart, or you can reach out to Dr. P and say, hey, we need some help, what do you got? And how do we do this right? And may I recommend you start early? Like when they hit the freshman year, why don't you reach out to her and begin the conversation, whether it's a four-year process with your child, or it might only be a two, but have the conversation and start repairing your child for life really, 'cause it's a lot more than just school and things. It's skills for life and college and test prep and all. That's part of the deal. But what they learn working with Dr. P is going to apply in so many areas of their life. So Dr. P, this is cool. Thanks for doing what you do. It's really exciting for me to talk to people who are pouring into that next generation primarily. And in helping adults who are going back to school, have the confidence that God can do this. And how do people find you if they're interested, if they wanna reach out and research or something, where do they go? - So the most direct way to get in touch with me is just shoot me an email at info@crimsandcoaching.com. But if they'd like to sort of do a little bit more research, they can go to my website, crimsandcoaching.com. And also a free resource that I have out there is my YouTube, which is youtube.com/crimsandcoaching. And I have dozens of videos on everything, from study skills to SAT versus ACT, to how to write a great college application, many course on there. So those are the three best ways. - Awesome. Well, this has been fascinating, enlightening, educational, dare I say. Thank you, Dr. P for being here. Thanks for who you are, for the vibrancy that you bring to what you do, and for the way you're impacting students of all ages, really. Thank you. - Thank you, Michael. It's been a pleasure. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to Expert Speak with Michael DeLong. If what you've heard today was helpful to you, reach out to our expert guest, and see how they can serve you to bring you more success, freedom, and purpose in your life. (upbeat music)