Noyce Scholar Profile
Diann Espinoza
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Biology
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Science, grades 6-12; Mathematics, grades 6-8
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Fifth year or post-baccalaureate Noyce scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
Pacific University Noyce Scholars
Current academic or teaching status:
Graduate student
School and school district:
Observing at Forest Grove High School and Gaston Jr./Sr. High School
Background:
I am 41 and a mother of six. My undergraduate work was in the sciences, with a major in biology, and my work experience in chemical and microbial analysis of food, soil, and water.
Why do you want to teach:
I home schooled my eldest child up to the seventh grade and enjoyed the process of planning for our lessons and watching as his understanding about the world grew with my help. I now have the desire to do the same for adolescents in the local schools.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
I have not yet had the opportunity to teach a class, but I have been allowed to work individually with some of the students in my mentor’s classes. Once I was working with a student who had been having a hard time understanding a concept in math. I was able to give him a feeling of success as the teacher was using white boards for the class to give her immediate feedback about student understanding of the concept that had been introduced the day before. He seemed grateful, and I felt that my time with him had been well-invested to give him at least a little more confidence.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
When I was chosen to be given the grant, I was surprised and pleased to have the honor. In reality, it was the beginning of a great intellectual growth-spurt for me. I am still in the middle of it as I write this.
In the spring of 2010 I had begun my entry level classes in the MAT Flex program and was enjoying every minute of them, when Dr. Kevin Carr, one of the Robert Noyce program directors, wrote and invited me to join him on a trip to D.C. in June for the annual Robert Noyce conference. It was a very memorable and inspiring trip.
In the spirit of Robert Noyce and with the assistance I have been given and will continue to benefit from through the scholarship program and the relationships I am building with fellow scholars, my dream now is to make science and math relevant and personal to my future students so they can go on to be the innovative leaders our nation needs in this global community we are all a part of.
