Introducing Alanna Phillips – Lead Tutor, Lakeshore

Hi. My name is Alanna Phillips, and I am the Lead Tutor at CLC’s Lakeshore Campus Tutoring Center. I tutor in writing, reading, speech, English, as well as study & technology skills. I am an artist and aspiring educator learning to think clearly & openheartedly in a confusing and disheartening world.

Growing up in the Zion/Waukegan/North Chicago area, Lake County has been the only home I’ve known. I attended college in New York to study film, but have found the suburbs to be largely more agreeable to my . . . sensibilities. I hadn’t realized that fresh air, proximity to family, and the ability to drive and walk slowly wherever I go were so important to me!

Anyway, post undergrad, I am now looking forward to deepening my sense of home, trying to understand the new ways I might belong here, and offer up the things I’ve learned back to the community that raised me. I hope to participate in building spaces that nurture people’s engagement with the arts, their senses of spirituality & humanity, and curiosity with one another. When I am not writing or tutoring, I am probably saving too many pdfs to my computer, rambling on about God, or watching a movie.

Nine Questions with Alanna

Major or Career Focus: Writing/English Education

How long have you been at CLC?  It’s been almost two months!

What is one strategy you use to get over writer’s block?  For creative projects (poems, scripts, short fiction, etc.) I look at pictures. I’ve amassed a bounty of images on my Pinterest, so that tends to be where I turn. I’m also known to make playlists surrounding themes or characters I want to get a deeper sense of. It just helps to think of my writing multidimensionally (musically, visually, physically, etc.).
For more academic work, I start with asking myself questions or journaling. I like to get a clear picture of what I know about my subject, what I don’t know, what interests me, what I’m avoiding, and what is at the core of my thesis or ideas.

Handwrite first drafts or type them?  Both! For poems, I like to start them by hand if I can. I like to scribble and cross out things during a poem draft. But sometimes words come when all I have is a phone on me. Most times though, drafts start at the computer. The keyboard has a fluidity of motion to it that I enjoy.

What food can you not stop eating?  Not a food, but matcha. The Post Market Cafe on Washington & County makes a smoooooth matcha. No bitter clumps at the bottom. Not too much ice. Sweet. Perfect.

Recommend a book, graphic novel, movie or TV series that you have enjoyed recently:  Carol & the End of the World has been an odd comfort show for me lately. It’s on Netflix.

If your life had a theme song right now, what would it be?  13th Century Metal by Brittany Howard (from the “Jaime (Reimagined)” album).

What is one surprising thing we should know about you? I’m currently exploring my interest in acting with a community theater group!

What led you to take this job at CLC? I’ve been on a mission to increase my consciousness of my community, and I’ve known CLC to be a stepping stone, a bridge, and an oasis of opportunity for many people I love. I figured this would be a wise place to begin that journey of placemaking for myself & others, and I love to write! Writing can be such an accessible way to communicate thought, knowledge, & belief, and I love to help people recognize that accessibility: that writing is for them.