The Business World

 

When I left college in 2005 I knew I wanted to teach, but with a degree in chemical engineering my options were open enough that I was not sure if I wanted to teach chemistry or math or engineering. Getting practical experience was very important to me. I wanted as much experience in as many fields as I could before I chose which field in which I wanted to teach.

 

This business card represents my tenure at The Fredericks Company where I was employed as a Manufacturing Engineering. The engineering team consisted of me and six men—all between the ages of 50 and 60. It was fabulous. While I learned to pull pranks and take pranks with the best of them, I quickly learned how to keep my mouth closed and learn from them. They were eager to teach once they learned I was not eager to lord my degree over them. There was the appropriate amount of safe hazing that occurred but with each prank and joke came an equal amount of teaching and understanding.

 

I slowly took over responsibility for an entire department. This included the training of employees, assurance of safety protocol adherence, production of materials and ongoing quality assurance monitoring. This was more responsibility than my last position. As a production chemist at United Chemical Technologies in Bensalem, PA my responsibilities ranged from daily production goals to quality assurance duties. The main difference with my new position was the training and supervising of personnel.  I had the opportunity to train employees individually and in small groups and I absolutely loved it. Not only did I enjoy it, I was told by many that I was very good at it. Personnel told me regardless of whether I was speaking to the owner of the company or the janitor of the company I spoke in the same manner. I have always thought that was one of the highest compliments I have been given.

 

Working in industry has given me a lot of experience to bring to teaching. It has given me a large repertoire of real world examples that seem to reverberate with students. It has allowed me to have honest conversations with students about what the work force looks like outside of high school and outside of college. It has especially helped me to speak with young women about working in a male dominated field. In general it has given me “street – credibility” in the field of high school students who are becoming further and further jaded about their future opportunities.

 

Teaching is about making connections. Working in industry has given me another pocketful of possible connections I can make with students. “Connections can be grounded in all kinds of interests. The fact that I can hold my own in movie trivia, baseball and I can make just about anybody laugh, these are more ways in which to reach students. In the film Mr. Holland’s Opus, the main character defends his choice of playing rock and roll music in his classroom to the principal by saying, “Mrs. Jacobs, you tell them that I am teaching music, and that I will use anything from Beethoven to Billie Holiday to rock and roll, if I think it'll help me teach a student to love music.” I feel the same way. I will try as many avenues as I authentically can to help to find a venue with which to connect with a student.