At Andover, the Teaching Fellows Program invites individuals who have yet to begin a professional teaching career for a one year teaching commitment at Andover. If Teaching Fellows request, however, they may continue their tenure for a second year as a Fellow. Teaching Fellows and Fellows are integrated into dorm, athletic, and community life, allowing new individuals to improve and hone their teaching skills for their futures both as teachers and in other fields.
Mato Seth, Fellow in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
My junior year of college, I started volunteering at an elementary school, and I really liked the kids. That was the experience that made me realize I definitely want to do teaching. I’ve always been in an academic environment, my mom is a teacher and my grandma was a teacher, a lot of my siblings are teachers… I thought teaching would be a good way to both get to interact with young people, socially, and also still get to interact with advanced material, cause I am pretty nerdy and I enjoy math… I think my main goal right now is just to keep the students afloat and teach them some stuff and not have them get overwhelmed and still run a positive environment as a class. I love the kids in Foxcroft. I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the year with them.
Ella Houlihan, Teaching Fellow in Biology
All my students are so thoughtful and curious as well. We’ve been tackling ideas of race and the construction of race and racism. And I noticed that a lot of students are really eager and hungry to have those conversations, especially in a science setting, which historically has not been sort of allowed, in a lot of ways. So a highlight was just seeing my students leading discussions around current social issues, and bringing in scientific ideas or concepts or critiquing those concepts… I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year and trying out sports and continuing to get to know community members. I think I can officially say that I want to continue teaching. Someone asked me that for the first time over the weekend, actually, and I think I really like this. I definitely see myself continuing to teach and that is all thanks to the support I’ve had here that’s allowed me to be successful as an educator.
Keeshawn Murphy, Teaching Fellow in English
This is a special position for first time teachers because you get to experience educating in the most immersive way possible. Not just engaging with students in the classroom but also in the dorms and sports settings… I have truly enjoyed being back on a campus surrounded by people who enjoy educating and being educated. It also has been hard personally because I’m the farthest I’ve ever been from my family for work. But in that same vein, I met some amazing people here that make it all worth it. Chosen family is real.
Hayden Stinson, Teaching Fellow in Spanish
The thing that I am looking forward to teaching most this year is the third trimester of SPA-200. In that trimester, the students will be reading a novel in Spanish and watching and analyzing a movie in Spanish. This is a huge step for an intermediate Spanish class, but I think those things will be very rewarding… I think the most special thing about being a Teaching Fellow is the freedom to bring your own strengths and background into the classroom while also having such a great support system of people who inspire you and are always willing to help you or talk through something with you.
Syeda Naqvi, Teaching Fellow in History and Social Science
I think my favorite thing I’ve taught so far has been about examining the origins of race in the ancient world, so posing questions about race and otherness to my students. I think that’s really exciting and interesting to learn about, especially as Andover is developing its anti-racist curriculum and making sure to be inclusive in its curriculums and its education that it’s giving to students. We had a great discussion about what it means to be othered in the ancient world, if it’s tied to race or not, how our modern conceptions of race are not representative of what it meant in the ancient world, and if it did mean anything specific in the ancient world or if it was about ethnicity, or culture, or geography.
