Noyce Scholar Profile
Leonidas De Los Santos
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Mathematics
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: High School Maht and Adult Degree Program
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Noyce Scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
Lehman College
Current academic or teaching status:
Senior
School and school district:
I did my field observations at Stevenson High School in the Bronx,
Background:
I have a background in Medical Science. I am a Certified Emergency Medical Technician. I work for a non-profit agency that provides in home intravenous treatment for patients with exhausted or no medical insurance in NYC. Quimioterapy,IV antibody therapy, and fluids replacement for home-bound patients is my specialty. I handled a great deal of active HIV cases as well as terminally ill and contagious cases. Due to the nature of my labor contract I cannot forward more details.
Before coming to the United States from The Dominican Republic I taught Anatomy and Histology.
Why do you want to teach:
I want to teach mainly because I do enjoy illuminating people’s faces with knowledge. I consider those ‘Ahhhja moments’ priceless. Being a teacher drives me to become a better person, to master my subject and to transcend into an all around educator.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
I never attended school formally. Between playing in the jungle and working the fields for subsistence I found a man who taught me everything. A self-educated person who enjoyed teaching under the shade of a mango three; he never rose his voice or scorned me with sarcasm. Like Socrates he taught engaging in a dialogue which could extend for days. He mesmerized me with his simplicity to explain relativity or gravity or just the origin of the numbers. The most memorable experience was an experiment where he tried to prove that the color green in the parrots’ feathers was due to the chlorophyll they ate from the foliage and therefore the feathers should be able to do photosynthesis. The experiment was a failure, I joked about it for days, but the idea was brilliant to defy conventional wisdom.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
The Noyce program has offered me the opportunity to work and immerse myself in the art-science of teaching. Its flexible schedule, facilities and comprehensive directive executives give me the sense of welcome that I have not experienced yet in any educational institution in which I have being so far.
