Noyce Scholar Profile
Allyson O'Neill
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Mathematics and Mathematics Education
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Mathematics, grades 9-12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Noyce Scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
North Carolina State University
Current academic or teaching status:
Senior, graduating May 2011
School and school district:
Southern Lee High School, Public School System of Lee County
Background:
I am a senior in Secondary Mathematics Education doubling with Mathematics and a minor in Statistics at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. I was born and raised in Maryland and plan on going back home to teach after I graduate. I will be student teaching in the spring and graduate in May 2011.
Why do you want to teach:
Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to work with children. First it was as a kindergarten teacher, but once I got older, I realized that was not the place for me. In high school I had decided I wanted to teach high school and coach when I was older, but was not sure what subject. I realized that math was my strongest subject. But more than this, I had grown up seeing my father teach middle school and high school mathematics. Every holiday and at the end of the year, he always came home with these wonderful gifts and amazing cards from his students. After realizing how much of an impact my father had had on so many of his students, I realized that I wanted to follow in his footsteps. So many of his students have gotten back in contact with him years later, just to say how much they appreciated what he did. I want to teach because I hope to be able to have an impact on students like the impact my father has had on so many of his students.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
One memorable teaching experience I had came this summer when I worked at a high school as a para-educator, working with students with IEPs and 504 plans in mathematics. After spending day after day working with a student to try and get him to understand Algebra 1 (which he was taking for the 4th time), he came up to me at the end of the day on the last day of school and told me how much he appreciated my help and knew he couldn’t have passed without me pushing him to succeed. Math may not be his favorite subject after the summer, but he finally passed Algebra I, and I think gained a little bit more confidence in the process.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
Noyce has provided me with so many opportunities I never thought were possible, or for that matter even knew about. I have been able to go to national and local professional development conferences along with professional development seminars at my school. Noyce has given me a community of scholars and advisors who I know will help me in many different ways now, and in my future endeavors as a teacher.
