Career Goals And Philosophy

According to my mother, I was six years old the first time I told her what I wanted to do with my life. “I want to be a teacher when I grow up!” I said to her, and I’ve been saying it ever since. I had a brief flirtation with marine biology in sixth grade, and with psychology in tenth, but in my heart I’ve always remained faithful to my one true passion: teaching. When my high school guidance counselors began asking about my career goals, teacher was always the answer I gave them, because despite fluctuating interests throughout my childhood, I could never really see myself doing anything else. Though it took a long time for me to decide what I wanted to teach, that vision of myself standing at the front of a classroom of eager students has never wavered. I’ve always been passionate …show more content…
After that, I intend to return to school to get my Ph.D. in mathematics education or a related field, and then I would like to teach and research at the college level. As far as research/project interest are concerned, one area I am particularly interested in is getting more women and minorities into STEM fields. Throughout my high school and college careers, it was blatantly obvious to me that women and minorities were underrepresented in many STEM fields. My math and science classes at JMU were full of white males. The lack of racial diversity in those classes can be explained by the lack of racial diversity in the school as a whole, but men are the gender minority at JMU. Still, most of my fellow math majors were boys. I fully believe that greater diversity is necessary in STEM, in order to foster more creativity, new ideas, and fresh perspectives. Hopefully as a mathematics teacher, I will be in a position to encourage all of my students, particularly girls and minorities, to further their knowledge and seek careers in STEM