Degrees: B.A. in English; M.T. in Secondary Education
How did the Stamps Scholarship help shape your undergraduate experience?
As a Stamps Scholar, my degree grew through a vast variety of interdisciplinary opportunities including study abroad, research teams, and conferences. I was able to seek out opportunities that expanded my literary study into history, curricular connections, and professional development opportunities that I would not have been able to pursue without the support of the Stamps Scholars program.
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your freshman self?
Invest your time wisely. There are so many amazing opportunities, particularly for Stamps scholars, that it can be easy to try to take advantage of all of them at once. Just take a moment to breathe, weigh your options, and take care of yourself. If you can’t take a specific opportunity, something new will be waiting just around the corner.
Who has had the greatest impact on you throughout your college career and how so?
Dr. Mary Styslinger has been incredibly influential in my growth as an educator. As a professor in undergrad she laid the foundation of my educational philosophy, and continued to mentor and support me as I pursued my graduate degree. Her dedication to literacy and culturally-relevant pedagogy has pushed me to constantly question and broaden the walls of my classroom beyond the canon, and will continue to influence generations of students throughout the course of my career.
What comes next?
I have accepted a teaching position at Aiken High School in the Aiken County Public School District for the 2019-2020 school year.