What is your favorite campus setting and why?

My favorite place on campus is the Maryland Food Co-op. At the Co-op I always run into people I know and I can always find something delicious (and vegetarian) to eat!

What has your scholarship meant to you or enabled you to do?

As an education major, it is very important that I have time to spend working with kids in addition to taking a full course load to complete my secondary school education double major. My scholarship has enabled me to delay getting a paid job so that I have time to work with children through my youth movement in addition to focusing on my studies.

What are your career plans/aspirations?

As a Secondary School Education and English Double Major, my career is in many ways set. My goal is to become a middle or a high school English teacher. However, while that aspiration may seem narrow to some, to me the directions I could take my teaching career in are endless.

One dream I have is to help found a charter high school and to teach English there. This school would be small, committed to building a cooperative learning community, and would place an equally strong emphasis on traditional academic subjects, the arts, and other important practical skills. In addition to traditional subjects, student would contribute to the school community by learning to work with their hands on a small teaching farm and in a teaching kitchen. There, they would not only learn important skills that are undervalued in an overly academic world, but would build stronger relationships with each other and gain a sense of communal responsibility.

This vision is only one of many directions in which I could take my teaching career, but no matter what path I choose, I want to make sure that my work is meaningful to me and to my students.