Noyce Scholar Profile
Jennifer Traxel
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: MSEd, Chemistry Education
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: General Science and Chemistry, grades 7-12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Fifth year or post-baccalaureate Noyce scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
SUNY Cortland
Current academic or teaching status:
Graduate 1st Year
School and school district:
Field experience-Whitney Point HS, Homer HS, Dewitt MS; Student Teaching-Homer HS, Cortland JHS
Background:
I am from a small town (Clinton, NY) and love to go camping, hiking, watch movies, travel, and especially love chemistry. I graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2010 with a BS in Adolescence Education Chemistry and loved my department so much that I decided to stay there as a graduate student!
Why do you want to teach:
I knew I always wanted to be a teacher, but never knew what to teach. When I took Chemistry in 11th grade, that changed. I love Chemistry and even more, I love getting other people to love Chemistry too! This is why I want to teach.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
During my student teaching experience at Homer High School, on my last day, I was given two bouquets of flowers and a cake that said, “We’ll Miss You.” All of those were amazing gifts and made me feel like I had done my job, but when a student came up to me at the end of the day and told me that he truly understood everything I had taught him and made him see Chemistry as a cool subject, that’s when I knew that I actually could make a difference and made me excited to be a Chemistry teacher.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
The Noyce program has been great to me. I have had the opportunity to go to the National Conference during the summer, meet and talk to other Noyce scholars, and have learned a lot of new ways to make Chemistry fun in my classroom. Any program that could help me be a better teacher means the world to me, and the Noyce program has done just that.
