"Dr. Padurano is a wonderful teacher. She pushes students to go beyond rote memorization and instead to start asking their own questions. For me, this mindset was invaluable as a high school student, motivating me to complete an honor’s thesis in college and continue to ask new research questions in graduate school."
Devon McMahon
Harvard Medical School Student • B.A. from Cornell University & Horace Mann Graduate
Before graduating, Devon was named a Merrill Scholar at Cornell designating her in the top 1% of her senior class there; during the process, she named Dr. P. as the high school teacher who had the most impact on her intellectual growth.
"Our daughter is a hard working student and a talented writer, but after weeks of trying to start her college essay writing, she was frozen with “writers block.” Dominique was the “catalyst” that was able get our daughter’s writing flowing and on the path to successfully write and complete a multitude of varying college essays. We cannot emphasize enough how grateful we are to Dominique for guiding our daughter through the difficult process of writing about oneself."
– S. L., Mamaroneck, NY
"I wanted to brush up on my Spanish and I took some sessions with Dominique. She was great, catering the lessons to my needs. In addition, she really enforced what we went over the week before so it would stick. I've taken lots of classes and always struggled with this. I would highly recommend Dominique. "
Meredith Verona
Bookkeeping, Valuations, & Forensics Expert
"Dominique is an exceptional teacher and educator who taught me US History at Horace Mann. Dominique set high expectations using college level material. Dominique challenged me intellectually and taught me how to manage the kind of academic rigor expected at the university level. My ability to analyze academic text, to perform thorough research, and to articulate my ideas in an essay definitely improved. The skills I learned from Dominique's class were invaluable throughout my undergraduate coursework in Philosophy at Columbia University in which the keen understanding of dense text and the ability to deliberate complex ideas proved to be requisites to academic success."
Mark Choi
Lieutenant, United States Navy
"Dominique provides a stress-free, relaxed, yet stimulating environment for the student which is conducive to creative thinking and productive results. She encourages the student to freely express their thoughts, ideas and opinions without criticizing or judging. The intellectual interaction between her and the student is palpable. I highly recommend Dominique to help any student reach his/her full potential in preparing for an academic project."
Jean Gray
Vice President, Treaty NA Operations Manager
"Our son had been an excellent student up until now but was struggling with organizational skills and study skills for his HS AP classes. Dominique, in just a few sessions, had pinpointed the problem areas and noticeably improved our son's grades and his confidence. We would highly recommend her and anticipate having her back once the college application process starts."
– Carol A., Upper Westchester County
"While Dr. Padurano cared deeply about the material she taught, she was chiefly concerned with the expansion of her students' intellectual curiosities and the development of their essential analytical skills. To this day, my process of consuming written information is heavily influenced by Dr. P.'s method of analytical reading, which emphasizes people, places and events. While this practice is conceptually simple, it serves as the core of a framework of thinking which has implications that are incredibly far-reaching."
Siddharth Saxena
CEO & Product Architect at Oblix
"I gained a more holistic education from Dr. Padurano’s AP US History class than in any single other course in my high school and college career. Dr. P. encouraged far more than simply memorizing facts; she taught us how to analyze text, think critically about it, and use insights we gained to structure our own thoughtful, detailed, and coherent historical narratives. Dr. P. is an incredible teacher, and any student who has the opportunity to learn from her is most fortunate."
Jessica Skoczylas
Client Strategist at L2 Inc.
"Dominique is one of the teachers that truly stood out in my time at Horace Mann...Her precise and thoughtful comments on my papers greatly improved my writing, and the workshop atmosphere she created in the AP course for our 25-30 page final research papers rivaled that of any college course I took. I was extremely well prepared for Yale's American Studies curriculum thanks to Dominique's teaching. The skills she taught me, from organizing my initial ideas and writing an outline, to researching and writing a paper, were invaluable to me throughout my college career."
Ethan Karetsky
Content Acquisition at Hulu