Noyce Scholar Profile

Corey White
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Middle Childhood Education
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Math and Science, grades 9-12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Noyce Scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
Ohio University
Current academic or teaching status:
Senior
School and school district:
Unioto Junior and High School; Chillicothe Middle School
Background:
I was born in Chillicothe, Ohio and have lived there all of my life. I attended schools in the Union-Scioto School District where I achieved in the classroom, on the court, and on the field. After graduating in 2006, I chose to attend Otterbein College to study life science to become an optometrist. I also played college baseball at Otterbein. After graduating with a BS in life science in 2010, I took a year off to apply for optometry school. During this year, I was approached to coach both basketball and baseball. I coached baseball at Piketon High School and basketball at Unioto High School. My coaching experience led me to change directions into the teaching field. I currently am taking classes at Ohio University Chillicothe (UOC).
Why do you want to teach:
The main reason I want to teach is because I enjoy working with kids. Whether it’s family gatherings, practices, games, subbing, or in my field experience, kids seem to relate well to me. I feel like I have the ability to get the best out of them, and this is what leads me to believe that I can help benefit education.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
My most memorable teaching experience took place at Unioto Junior High in Mr. Parks’ 7th grade English class. I was in charge of planning a lesson for the class as part of one of my courses at OUC. English was not my strong point in school. I struggled somewhat with reading comprehension, and this led me to dislike reading. I decided that I would take a different approach to how I was taught reading comprehension in school and make it fun. I decided to have the students do a probable passage on the reading passage they would be reading. This got all students engaged by allowing them to predict what will happen in the story. Their predicting made them want to read to find out if their predictions were right.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
This program is crucial to my future as a teacher. The Noyce program will not only fund my education, but it will also allow me to meet the needs of a higher needs school. I am very blessed and thankful to have been chosen as a Noyce scholar.