Articles - Fall 2009 - return to index
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| Incredible instructors helped me achieve my goals”—Andrea Russell |
These college grads are headed back to high school
-By Chris Cunningham
Recent Lane Community College graduates Andrea Russell and Jeremy Soriano are passionate learners who’ve demonstrated they’ll be passionate classroom teachers too.
Russell student-taught high school math classes while still at Lane, and Soriano tutored biology students in the campus science resource center.
Russell and Soriano are recipients
of Oregon Community College
Association scholarships, based on
their academic excellence, and their
contributions to the college’s learning
community. The scholarships are
helping defray tuition costs as the
two continue their studies at the
University of Oregon.
Russell is sad to leave Lane, where she met “incredible instructors who helped me achieve my goals.” One such teacher is Merrill Watrous, Lane’s student teaching supervisor.
“Merrill gave me plenty of ideas for setting up a curriculum and keeping students engaged,” says Russell, now a math major at the UO.
Impressed with Russell’s natural talent in the classroom, where her love of the subject matter matches her affection for her charges, Watrous says, “We need to get Andrea into the schools as soon as possible!”
For Soriano, “Lane will always be more than just a stepping stone,” because his coursework and
his relationships with instructors and students “helped shape my
teaching philosophy.”
He took both Watrous’ education classes—Foundations of Education and Language Arts strategies—that meet education program requirements at many universities.
Watrous calls “Marco the Mako Shark,” an online picture book
Soriano created for her class, a “work of art” that impresses even the
most seasoned educators. “It’s a combination biology and music
appreciation book,” she says. Russell, who plans to be a high school
math teacher, says Lane “exceeded my expectations in preparing me
for my career.”
Future high school biology teacher Soriano wishes “that I might someday provide my students the same guidance and experience that Lane has provided me.”
