About Us: OWL Tutoring Schedule

Our Schedule for SPRING 12: Effective Jan. 5 - Apr. 25

am shift: 12:00 am - 11:59 am

pm shift: 12:00 pm - 11:59 pm

• Monday am: Joan Rappaport
• Monday pm: Jean Vengua
• Tuesday am: Natalie Williams-Munger
• Tuesday pm: Joan Rappaport
• Wednesday am: Jean Vengua
• Wednesday pm: Valerie Bronstein
• Thursday am: Valerie Bronstein
• Thursday pm: Larry Winters
• Friday am: Dion Farquhar
• Friday pm: Larry Winters
• Saturday am: Valerie Bronstein
• Saturday pm: Darien Eckberg
• Sunday am: Larry Winters
• Sunday pm: Joan Rappaport

Our Guidelines

Learn more about our learning support services. Click here to access guidelines and FAQ's

Our Staff

Gwen Ball, English Tutoring Services Manager
Gwen graduated from Mills College in Oakland, Calif., with an MFA in writing. She began teaching English at GGU in 1991, and in 1998 she became one of the first CyberCampus instructors at GGU. She created the OWL, which opened at GGU in the fall of 1998, and has been its sole manager since its inception. In the Fall of 09, she became the SF Writing Lab Manager as well. Her teaching experience includes a broad spectrum of English courses ranging from basic writing to graduate research-writing and design. She developed and created the online versions of English 10A and 10B and collaborated on the development of English 1B and is currently teaching English 10B and 1B online. Gwen has three children, two cats, and a dog, and lives with her husband and the rest of their clan in Alameda, Calif. In her free time, she reads between 35-40 mysteries and historical fiction a year. Her current favorites are Henning Mankell and Lee Child; her old favorite is Anthony Trollope.

Valerie Bronstein, OWL Tutor
Valerie graduated from UC Davis with a BA in English and History. She spent her senior year at The University of California, Davis campus in Washington DC, where she interned at The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. Upon graduating from UCD, Valerie returned to Washington DC to work on Capitol Hill for Congressman Robert Matsui while completing her MA in American Studies at The George Washington University. In 1999, Valerie gave birth to her twin daughters and returned to California, so she could pursue her teaching career. As an English Professor, she has taught various English courses ranging from Basic Writing Proficiency to College Composition and Literature. She teaches traditional classroom courses, on-line classes, and hybrids using Blackboard and D2L. When she's not teaching or tutoring, Valerie is re-reading Historical Fiction by her favorite author, Jeff Shaara, or listening to her favorite Radio Talk-Show hosts: KGO's Ronn Owens or Brian Copeland.

Darien Eckberg, OWL & Writing Lab Tutor
Darien Eckberg holds a Master's Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from San Francisco State University, and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics from the University of California, at Berkeley. She has taught ESL and writing classes at the university level for eight years, and has been a writing tutor for over 20 years. She also holds two Certificates in Horticulture and Advanced Landscape Design from Merritt College. She owns her own landscape design business. When she is not working, she enjoys tending her compost bin, hosting dinner parties, and lazing around with her cats.

Dion Farquhar, OWL Tutor
Born in 1947, Dion Farquhar can hardly believe the numbers. She is a veteran teacher as well as a poet, prose fiction writer, and cultural critic. A Ph.D. in political theory (New York University), she loves language and what it can do and enjoys helping students express themselves through writing. This fall (2007) she is teaching two sections of the Crown College Core course, "Ethical Issue in Emerging Technologies: Participatory Evolution: from Human to Posthuman," and in Spring 2008, she will teach modern novels, "Narratives of Resistance" at UCSC. Her poetry chapbook won first prize in the 2007 Poets Corner chapbook competition and is available from her (at dnfarquhar at yahoo dot com). She is currently finishing a novel set in the 1980s in Manhattan. Her poems and stories appear in Otoliths, languageandculture.net, AUGHT, Xcp: Streetnotes, Rogue Scholars, The Argotist, Sulfur, Hawaii Review, boundary 2, Lip Service, City Works, Cream City Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, etc.

Joan Rappaport, OWL Tutor
Joan Rappaport currently teaches writing and English at Golden Gate University and San Francisco State University. She holds a BA from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Joan has taught writing, literature, and Jewish Studies courses at Santa Clara University, Binghamton University, and the University of Massachusetts.

Jessica Stiles, OWL Tutor (On Leave for SP 12)
Daughter of a wildlife biologist, Jessica was born in Kenya and spent the first eight months of her life in a tent in the Masai Mara. Twenty-one years later, just out of college, she landed a job at the San Francisco County Jail, where she taught literature and personal essay writing to incarcerated mothers. Since then, she has received her MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University, and taught and tutored creative and analytical writing to students of various ages and abilities, including Brooklyn third graders, Columbia PhD candidates, Korean MBA applicants, and Bay Area high school students. A sample of her own writing, published under her maiden name, can be found here: http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1682 . Jessica lives in the Presidio, San Francisco's national park, with her husband T.J . (author of Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War ) and, Dillon, their young son.

Natalie Williams-Munger, OWL Tutor
Natalie currently serves as the Program Coordinator for Undergrad Programs at GGU. She holds a Master's degree in English and Literary Criticism from Sonoma State University, and a Bachelor's degree in English and Comparative Literature from UC Davis. She has taught writing and freshman composition at Sonoma State University and also served as coordinator for their Written English Proficiency requirement. During her school years she served as copy editor for The California Aggie, scored writing exams for Educational Testing Services, and worked for the California Department of Education in specialized media and technology. Her research interests include medieval literature, gender studies, and education. While not at GGU, she enjoys reading (what else), being outdoorsy, and traveling - all while continually fighting the urge to return to school for more degrees. A native of Sonoma County, she is happy to be here in the bay area working for GGU!

Larry Winters, OWL Tutor
Larry is from Salem Massachusetts, and graduated from Salem High School. It's a genuinely odd place to be from and, these days anyway, a fun place to visit. Most of his family still lives in New England and, yes, he is a Red Sox fan. He went to Boston University, where he earned a BA in Philosophy and Religion. He spent the 'Summer of Love' driving a taxi in Boston and Cambridge. At B.U. he was particularly interested in existential social theory. This is an interest that he still maintains. He went to McGill University in Montreal, where he earned his Master's degree in Philosophy and Anthropology. I taught philosophy, sociology and literature for two years in a bi-lingual setting at Concordia University in Montreal before moving to Greenwich Village, Manhattan in 1972. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Sociology at the Graduate Faculty of the New School University in 1978. His primary research was and still is in the areas of Contemporary European Philosophy of Science and Logic. He is especially interested in issues of creativity and innovation. His most recent work in progress is an introductory book on existentialism and literature. He has worked as a faculty member at Long Island University and at Rutgers. Presently, he is teaching at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. He teaches the Core courses as well as courses in documentary film, Introduction to Philosophy, Social Philosophy and Computers in Society. He has taught in the on-line format for 10 years, and find sit quite exciting. He was also in Student life/Student Services Administration at Rutgers in New Brunswick. He has a Facebook page, and you can reach him at lwinters@fdu.edu or larry_winters@hotmail.com

Jean Vengua, OWL Tutor
Jean Vengua has a Ph.D. in English from U.C. Berkeley, and a B.A. in World Literature and Cultural Studies from U.C. Santa Cruz. She is a lecturer in Human Communications at California State University Monterey Bay. Jean's essays and poetry have been published in many anthologies and journals, and she is author of a collection of poems, Prau. She is currently a guest curator for the Filipino Voices exhibit (upcoming April 2012) at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.

To return to the OWL home page, click here.