“I remember writing a letter to my kindergarten teacher at the end of the year, in which I described how I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Many young kids say that they want to be a superstar or a circus performer and do not pursue it later in life. However, my desire to teach followed me into high school. In my sophomore year of high school, I became a Project Green Schools Ambassador. I had already been doing environmentally work for two years at my own high school, but I wanted to branch out. I was passionate about the work I was doing and wanted to continue it. That same year I began taking physics for the first time, finding yet another passion. However, my passion for physics turned me away from my goal of becoming a teacher as I decided to “do” physics instead of teaching it. I had heard the phrase “Those who can’t do, teach” often enough that it stuck. I was good enough to “do” physics and so I decided to be an engineer. I continued as a Green Schools ambassador and still had a passion for the environment, but I had decided to channel it into a career in some kind of “green” engineering.
It wasn’t until four years later, after my first year at Bryn Mawr College, that my passion for teaching was rekindled. I got a summer job teaching at Biogen, a biotechnology company, in their community lab. I taught high school students and middle school students that summer. I went back to school with the desire and passion to educate students even stronger than it had been prior to my sophomore year of high school. I continued to pursue my dream of becoming a teacher, accepting teaching experience wherever possible. Almost four years later, I am now pursuing that dream. I received the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship to attend Kennesaw State University. I am working on getting a Masters of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in physics. However, I have not lost the love for the environment that Project Green Schools helped to instilled in me so many years ago. I want to teach physics, but my goal is to incorporate sustainability and Environmental Education into my physics classroom. I want to teach because I my teachers were some of my greatest influences and supports in life aside from my parents. I want to give to students the same chances and support that I got as I pursued my dreams and goals. I worked hard and I was also lucky enough to have a whole host of people including my family, who were able to work just as hard to get me here. Not every kid has that support system in place and I want to spend my life dedicated to giving every student the support they need inside and outside of the classroom.”
