Amherst Alumni--Teacher Profiles

Class of ’54 Commitment To Teaching Fellowship
Amherst is proud of its recent graduates who have chosen to teach in urban and other school systems where students may be considered “at risk” or are socio-economically disadvantaged.  Through the generosity of the Class of 1954, which has established a Commitment to Teaching Fund, Amherst is able each year to award stipends to a limited number of Amherst graduates who have been teaching for ten years or less.

The 2007 awardee biographies are below, along with an inspirational quote.

Erin Allaman ’02
Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Leadville, Colorado

About Erin:
Erin believes that teaching enables her to play an ethical role in a broader social scheme and that it is the most effective means of leveraging her education, talents, skills, and experience. Since graduating from Amherst with a degree in Anthropology and Five College Certificate in International Relations, Erin has taught at the American School in Japan, served as a Thompson Island Outward Bound instructor, and worked as a grant writer and after-school program coordinator as an Americorps VISTA for United Way of Hampshire County.  She is currently teaching in rural Colorado school that serves a predominantly first-generation Mexican-American community.  Erin has initiated several programs at her school that provide further educational enrichment and access.

Quote:
I feel that I make a difference in the lives of my students by listening to the stories they have to tell and helping them have a school and education that inspires, motivates and empowers them.  Students in my class are provided with a place to care and be cared about. They take on projects of their own design and I teach them how to make their goals a reality. This includes helping students plan for college, creating a soccer league, teaching skills to be citizens and connecting them to their local community. I strive to make a difference by creating a space for hopeful, articulate, young adults to grow into leaders ready to make the world theirs.

Greta Christina Anderson ’05
Middle and High School Math Teacher, Garyville, Louisiana

About Greta:
Upon the completion of her degree in History, Greta joined the Greater New Orleans Corps of Teach For America.  Temporarily displaced after Hurricane Katrina, Greta returned to Louisiana to teach at an alternative school for expelled students in Garyville.  During the summer of 2006, Greta interned for Diploma Plus at Commonwealth Corporation in Boston, where she analyzed past Regents Social Studies exams and conducted research on alternative grading and assessments.  She plans to continue teaching at the St. John Redirection Center and writes, “My students inspire me every day to achieve the impossible − to truly redirect students most others have given up on.”

Quote:
As Louisiana continues to erode, both physically and socially, I see plainly that education must be the ground for change. At the Redirection Center, students involved in the court system are crowded into multi-subject, multi-grade level classes. Without further intervention, many of my students will continue contributing to Louisiana's nation-topping incarceration rates.  Despite the daunting statistics, my students desperately crave success and high-expectations.  My students have redirected my own life towards advocating for social justice through education.


Mabel I. Lajes-Guiteras ’99
Middle School Literacy Chair, Boston, Massachusetts

About Mabel:
Mabel, originally from the Bronx, completed her Amherst degree by majoring in both Psychology and Theater and Dance.  She proceeded to teach special needs children at the New England Center for Children, eventually leaving to complete a Master’s degree in Educational Theatre with English certification at NYU.  Since then, Mabel has taught middle and high school English in West Nyack, NY, and at Roxbury Preparatory School in Roxbury, MA.  She is currently at the Boston Prep Charter Public School, a school she helped to found.  She oversees school-wide literacy in her work as chair of the Literacy Department.  Mabel, with her desire to effect change on a larger scale and to provide an excellent education for urban youth, is in the process of completing coursework toward Principal Administrative Certification at Boston University.

Quote:
Many of our incoming 6th graders come to us reading and completing math at a 3rd  or 4th grade level. We have a few students who work on a 1st grade level. How can such an injustice be allowed to happen? I find it appalling.  Together as a community, Boston Prep has made a commitment to change that. This is what made me join the founding team. Our hard work is what has made our school community successful. We know there is a problem, and we are going to try our very best to be part of the solution. 


Huong Long ’05
High School Math Teacher, Gentry, Mississippi

About Huong:
Huong’s experience attending school in a poor, marginalized district of Los Angeles has motivated her to help economically disadvantaged students gain the most from their education.  While at Amherst, Huong was actively involved in a variety of Community Outreach initiatives.  Upon completion of her Amherst degree in Economics and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Huong joined the Mississippi Teacher Corps.  During the last two years she has completed her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction at University of Mississippi while also teaching in Indianola, MS.  She is currently a high school math teacher and Academic Decathlon Coach at Gentry High School, a rural school where 90% of its students receive free or reduced lunch.

Quote:
Each school year, I meet 150 new strangers, but by the end of the year, they're no longer strangers.  Through the discussions, challenges, laughter, disappointment, begging, pleading, frustration, resentment, and success, my students and I teach and learn from each other.  It's an amazing feeling, knowing that my students will take a part of me with them.


Juan A. Rodriguez, Jr. ’03
High School Math Teacher, Chicago, Illinois

About Juan:
Juan began his formal education in a small, poorly-lit bilingual classroom next to the boiler room in his school’s basement.  His early school experiences were a motivating factor in becoming a teacher.  Juan graduated from Amherst with a double major in English and Spanish and also served as chair of La Causa.  He subsequently enrolled in the Master of Education program at Boston College. Juan realized the need for hands-on experience and moved back across the state to teach high school math in West Springfield.  Juan is currently a high school math teacher at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School in Chicago, IL, a school where pride in Puerto Rican History and Culture is central to its mission.  He also serves as a volunteer mentor to high school students through the “Pipeline to Public Health” program.  Juan’s love of Math and strong commitment to sharing his insights with students inspire him to teach.

Michael M. Somerville ’01
High School Math Teacher, Washington, D.C.

About Michael:
Mike is a high school math teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public charter school in one of the lowest performing areas in Washington, D.C.  After studying economics and playing Varsity Football at Amherst, Mike worked as an Investment Representative for Deutsche Bank Asset Management, Scudder Investments.  He left the world of finance and spent the next three years teaching elementary, middle, and high school math and technology at the American School of Madrid.  Having decided that teaching is his profession of choice, Mike returned to the U.S. and is currently in his second year at Thurgood Marshall, where he also coaches the girls basketball team and is a member of the School Improvement Plan Team. 

Quote:
I have been blessed with many amazing teachers, professors and coaches over the course of my life.   There are far too many at risk students today who are not given access to a quality education that will present them with the same opportunities that I had.  I feel that I am working at a school and in a community where I am making a small difference and helping to correct this serious problem.  I have met many parents and students over the past few years that inspire me and keep me going.

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Check out the 2006 awardee biographies below!


Melanie Livingston '99
Rafael Hernandez School, Boston, MA 

About Melanie:
After leaving Amherst, Melanie moved to Mexico to teach English for a year. When she returned, she moved to Boston to get her Masters of Ed and get a foot in the door of the Boston Public Schools. She has been there ever since, teaching middle school students in one of the only bilingual programs left in Massachusetts. She is passionate about working with adolescents, about teaching as a political and social act, and about fighting certain parts of No Child Left Behind until they die a fiery death.

School Snapshot:
The Rafael Hernandez School teaches students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.  Students range from in age from four to fourteen.  There are 398 students currently enrolled, and 80 are in middle school (grades six, seven, and eight).  The Hernandez has been a two-way bilingual school since 1975. 

Quote:
Ten years after high school, it is now obvious to me that my job is not to rescue children of the inner city.  I work for them, and I ask them to work for themselves.  I fight for them, and I ask them to fight for themselves.  I teach them Standard English grammar, and they teach me humility.  I think it’s a fair deal.


Travis J. Bristol ’03
Manhattan/Hunter College High School for Science, New York City

About Travis:
As an English major, in his junior year, Travis J. Bristol received The Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for students of color interested in entering the teaching profession. As a senior, he wrote a senior thesis on his grandfather's oral history as story.  Travis then attended Stanford University, in 2004, where he received his Master of Arts in the Teaching of English.  In his second year at Manhattan/Hunter College High School for Science, Travis teaches 9th and 10th grade English. Currently, Travis is working with the Carnegie Foundation and Columbia's Teachers College to produce a website that will serve as a resource for pre-service teachers.

School Snapshot:
The Manhattan/Hunter College High School for Science is an Early College High School partnership between Hunter College and New York City Department of Education.  The high school offers a small, safe, nurturing student-centered environment for students who score a 2 (slightly below) and 3 (on grad level) on the New York State Reading Examination.  The school’s current population is approximately 300 in grades 9, 10, and 11.

Quote:
Until last Spring, I was not convinced that I was making a difference in the lives of my students.  One day last Spring, in passing, one of my African-American male students, who hovers over me at six-feet four-inches said, “I see a type of myself in you.”  At first, I felt uncomfortable by the comment.  I did not want to be a role model, someone to be looked up to, but rather a teacher, a sharer of knowledge.  However, as time went on, I realized that for this student I represented “something” different, someone who was making a difference in his life.


Megan McKenzie Stelmach ’97
Richmond High School, Richmond, CA

About Megan:
Megan graduated from Amherst in 1997 with a major in Fine Arts.  She spent several years working in Honduras and Mexico as a Training Coordinator of American Volunteer Teachers in the RARE Center for Tropical Conservation Nature Guide Training Program. She first started teaching at Richmond High School when she was twenty-five, teaching black and white photography and basic art.  In her second year she taught Advanced Placement Studio Art, and she now teaches AP Art, English, and AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination).  Megan received her CLEAR Teaching Credential in English and Art from California State University at East Bay.

School Snapshot:
Richmond high school is an inner-city urban high school located in a culturally diverse, low socio-economic community.  Approximately 55% of the student body is designated English Learners (EL), representing the major language groups: Spanish, Mien, and Lao.  Their English proficiency ratings range from level 1 to level 4.

Quote:
I learned early in life that a commitment to public education has the potential to create equity across economic and racial lines.  There is no reason that greater financial means should translate to a more quality education.  If all schools commit to making education equitable, our society as a whole will benefit.


Courtney Dowd ’04
Middle School 201, Bronx, NY

About Courtney:
Courtney completed her undergraduate work at Amherst College in 2004 and majored in Political Science.  She once wanted to be a lawyer, but now is committed to education. She’s currently finishing her two-year commitment with Teach for America as a middle school special education teacher in the Bronx.  Courtney will be finishing a dual Master's degree in elementary and special education in June 2006 from Lehman College. She will continue to teach middle school special education in the Bronx for the next few years.  She hopes to open one of the first special education charter schools in New York City. 

School Snapshot:
Middle School 201 is a school that serves about six-hundred fifth through eighth grade students.  MS 201 is located in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.  The student body is composed of 28% Black students and 72% Hispanic students.  The student population has a high rate of poverty with 98% of the student body receiving free school lunch.

Quote:
I decided that I would make my small contribution to the improvement of the education system by throwing myself into the trenches to close the achievement gap between public school students from privileged backgrounds and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.  Although I cannot overhaul the entire education system, I can do my very best to believe in my students’ ability to achieve greatness regardless of their socioeconomic background and to give my students the tools they need to be successful citizens.