maizie simpson

meet andrew, our student help associate

everyone, meet andrew. andrew, meet everyone!

andrew gealy is one of our magoosh student help associates. if you’ve studied with magoosh, you may recognize him as the guy who emailed you back when you needed help logging into your account or answering an impossible math problem. but did you also know that he’s a graduate of uc berkeley or that he’s really tall and plays/coaches volleyball? see, that’s why you’re here. let’s learn a little more about andrew in this exclusive q&a!

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1. what were you doing before coming to magoosh?

living back on the central coast, coaching my high school volleyball team, and applying to boatloads of jobs. before that, i was studying cognitive science and education (and playing volleyball) at cal.

2. what gets you fired up about working in education?

i appreciate working with test prep students specifically because they tend to be highly motivated. this isn’t always the case for students in a traditional classroom, which is a big problem in its own right, but not one that i have to deal with at magoosh. more generally, i’ve always reveled in the process of empathizing with a student’s understanding to break down a difficult concept into more approachable pieces. working in education gives you plenty of these opportunities. 🙂

3. how tall are you exactly?

6’6″, or 198cm

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4. what’s the most interesting place you’ve ever been?

probably a tie between the galapagos and north thailand. the island landscape of the galapagos was different than anything i’d seen before, and i got to experience all the wildlife up close and personal since many of the native species have lost their fear instinct from lack of predators. ironically, that trip also involved the sickest, most miserable 24 hours of my entire life! i saw thailand on a 2-week cycling tour in college, but the highlight was new years eve in chiang mai and the thousands of fireworks and sky lanterns visible from our 24th floor hotel room. totally unregulated and not something you could ever see in the us.

5. what’s your favorite part about working at magoosh?

it’s probably been said before, but our culture is great. open communication is never a problem, which means that it’s easy to share my ideas freely and get honest feedback from my coworkers. managers guide themes and goals at a high level, while allowing for plenty of freedom in working out the practical details. this gives me autonomy to lead my own projects, and also results in a flexible schedule that lets me do things like coach volleyball on the side, since i’m trusted to be self guided in getting my work done.

 

 

author

  • maizie simpson

    maizie writes about magoosh and gets others to talk about magoosh. a graduate of the university of arizona (bear down!) with a ba in journalism, she loves nuanced grammar rules, learning strange languages, and traveling to new places. she has an unnatural obsession with middle eastern politics and mexican food.