FAMILY
Growing up I was lucky enough to have parents that were extremely supportive academically and athletically. It was always important to them to have healthy and happy children, and my brother, Stephen, and I greatly appreciated the fact that they have been so encouraging throughout our lives. My dad has worked on the marketing side of the air conditioning business, and my mother has spent many years as an outdoor educator. The picture below was taken at my brother's graduation from UT Tyler, where he was named the top student in the Business and Marketing school, and received multiple academic honors.
Growing up I was lucky enough to have parents that were extremely supportive academically and athletically. It was always important to them to have healthy and happy children, and my brother, Stephen, and I greatly appreciated the fact that they have been so encouraging throughout our lives. My dad has worked on the marketing side of the air conditioning business, and my mother has spent many years as an outdoor educator. The picture below was taken at my brother's graduation from UT Tyler, where he was named the top student in the Business and Marketing school, and received multiple academic honors.
ACTIVITIES
From the time I was three years old I have loved to dance! I competed on multiple different competitive companies, and was part of the drill team during high school. During college I was lucky enough to become a part of the Dallas hip hop community, where I spent almost all of my free time until I was diagnosed with two spinal conditions that kept me from dancing. The other activity that took up the majority of my time in high school was competitive swimming. I swam off and on for about six years, but did not pursue swimming in college because of a shoulder injury. Both pictures below were taken my senior year of high school. (I'm in the middle on the picture to the right)
From the time I was three years old I have loved to dance! I competed on multiple different competitive companies, and was part of the drill team during high school. During college I was lucky enough to become a part of the Dallas hip hop community, where I spent almost all of my free time until I was diagnosed with two spinal conditions that kept me from dancing. The other activity that took up the majority of my time in high school was competitive swimming. I swam off and on for about six years, but did not pursue swimming in college because of a shoulder injury. Both pictures below were taken my senior year of high school. (I'm in the middle on the picture to the right)
INTERESTS
I have always loved the environment. With a mother who taught at an outdoor education school, I was frequently reminded of the cool things that we could find in nature. She explained to me the importance of different animals in our environment, as well as the plants and insects that are part of the ecosystem. When I was younger my mom and I went to many Keep Texas Beautiful conventions where we learned about the importance of keeping our environment clean. On top of that, I participated on many trash pickups through school organizations as well as our local Keep Texas Beautiful organization. Below is a picture taken in the summer of 2014 when I visited the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center where I went on a tour around their reservation. Since I've moved to college my parents have moved to Plano where our house is conveniently located near the Connemara Conservancy. The picture on the right was taken in the Connemara.
LEARNING STYLES/EXPERIENCES
Throughout my schooling I was never taught how to study, testing strategies, or ways to improve my reading comprehension. I was always an A-B student, so my teachers didn't think I needed instruction in that way. However, as I went into college I found it more and more difficult to find meaning out of what I read, and remember everything that was in my 1500 page biology book. To my surprise, my mom had some awesome advice for me! She said that when I was younger we used to make up songs and dances to remember my spelling words, and create tests to work on history. Starting off of these ideas, I used multiple different techniques to help me learn. They ranged from creating color coded copies of my notes, to making videos, to putting all of my notes up on a wall and adding things as I read. While visual learning has been my strength recently, I have also found ways to help with auditory learners, as well as kinesthetic learners. Below is a picture of myself shaking the hand of the Dean of Education at the University of North Texas, for making the Dean's List.
WHY I AM A TEACHER
As stated previously, I have always had a passion for the environment, and I've felt it was my duty to in some way make a positive change not only in the environment but in other's lives as well. Through teaching I feel I am able to do this. My hope is that I will inspire the next generation of scientists, politicians, activists, and even just volunteers, that realize how important and fragile our environment is and want to make a difference in how we treat it. I also thoroughly enjoy working with kids! It is absolutely amazing seeing their eyes light up whenever they finally understand something they've been struggling to grasp. Not only that, but they come up with the most amazing observations and unique way of looking at things. Through this job I know I'm not only teaching, but learning as well! Below I have a picture of myself on Sanibel Island, where my family and I went on a vacation. This was taken while we were checking out the sea life during low tide!