Noyce Scholar Profile
Eva Mondragon
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Biology
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Biology, grades 9-12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Noyce Scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
University of La Verne
Current academic or teaching status:
Junior
School and school district:
N/A
Background:
I am a first generation American and the youngest daughter of four girls. I am the mother of an eight-year-old girl who is currently in the third grade. I am a returning college student, after over ten years of making a living at jobs that I was not passionate about. Fortunately I have an amazingly supportive husband and family who pushed me to go back to school and find my dream of being a science teacher.
Why do you want to teach:
I believe that educators have such a strong influence on society and children in general. If that influence is taken seriously and handled with care, I believe an educator can influence generations of people to make the world a better place. I feel that if I can influence just one individual to find his or her dream and to not be afraid to challenge themselves to be a better student and a better person, then I will have reached my ultimate goal.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
My teaching experiences thus far have been limited to volunteering in my daughter’s classroom, which was also a motivational experience for me to pursue a career in teaching. I remember a time that I took Petri dishes into my daughter’s class to collect airborne bacteria for one of my classes. I explained to the class what I was doing, how my experiment was structured, and that I was curious to see what I could potentially grow from a classroom. The children were so excited about my plans, and they had so many questions, not all of which I had answers to. This inspired me to learn more, and I encouraged them to write down their questions so that I could find all of the answers for them. The next time I saw the class, one student was very excited to show me that he had picked a science book from the library; he was reading about making up his own experiments.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
The Noyce program has been an amazing help to me financially. I have been able to focus solely on school because of the aid that I have been granted. I also feel very proud to be considered a Noyce scholar, an honor that I take very seriously. The Noyce program hopes to encourage excellence in math and science, and I am proud to be a part of a program and a community with such admirable goals.
