Q: What school did you attend prior to college?
A: I attended Valley High School in West Des Moines.
Q: What college are you attending?
A: I am currently attending the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
Q: What are you majoring in?
A: I am majoring in Chemistry and Chemistry Education. I also have a Teaching Endorsement for Physics.
Q: Why do you want to be a teacher?
A: I had several teachers in high school that inspired me to be a teacher. They not only took the time to help me with classwork, but they also taught me valuable life skills that I still use today.
Q: What class do you want to teach?
A: I would like to teach high school chemistry and physics
Q: What is the most fun science experiment you’ve done?
A: At UNI, our Chemistry Club puts on several chemistry demonstration shows throughout the year. Last Fall we ended a show by doing a gun cotton experiment. Gun cotton is very flammable and can create a large bright flame when ignited! To give you an idea of how big the flame was, I had to stand a meter away from the gun cotton when I ignited it.
Q: What kind of things do you want to do with your students in the future?
A: For my future physics classes, I want to have my students build mousetrap cars and race them to see who can make the fastest car. For my future chemistry classes, I am looking forward to doing some fun chemistry labs.
Q: What is one fun fact about you?
A: I lived in Germany for three years when I was little. This was because my parents were stationed in Germany while they were in the army.
Q: What is your favorite animal and why?
A: My favorite animal is an ostrich. Why an ostrich you may say? I think that they are a bizarre bird with a lot of cool facts about them.
Q: What is one piece of advice you want to give to those who read Rampage?
A: If you are planning on going to college after high school, it is okay to not know what you are going to major in. I have several friends who spent their first year or two trying out different classes that they thought were interesting before declaring a major. Also establish good study habits. If you have bad study habits now in high school, you will have bad study habits in the future.
