James’ Backstory

James is a young professional pursuing his dream of giving back to his community by becoming a high school math teacher. He was raised by his mother having lost his father to untimely death in the city of Philadelphia, PA. His mother encouraged him to pursue subjects that interested him. Since middle school, James had a love of science and mathematics. Topics within science and mathematics attract his attention more so than English and history. In high school, James helped explain mathematical concepts to his fellow students, whom found it difficult to comprehend. His Algebra 2 teacher saw that James had a gift for teaching. She encouraged him to use this gift, but James had plans to become and engineer.
After completing his K-12 education in the Philadelphia School District, James decided to continue his studies at Drexel University, where he studied engineering. Engineering opened many doors for James. He developed relationships with other engineers through internships. James enjoyed working as an engineer but something always seemed to be missing. While at Drexel University, he found a passion for volunteering. Volunteering fostered a similar feeling as studying and talking about science and mathematics. After graduating from college, James wrestled with ideas of combining engineering and volunteerism. But, he put away those immature ideas in place of starting his engineering career. James invested a lot of time in becoming an engineer and felt that pursuing any other career would be a waste.
Shortly after graduating, he retained an engineering position. James found the work very interesting and financially beneficial to him. After a number of years as an engineer, he found that passion was missing in his life. James decided to forgo engineering to become mathematics teacher. He is currently pursuing his career transition while taking on tutoring opportunities to gain experience. James’ first student is Tim, a teenager who hates algebra. What does future hold for this young educator?

CC BY-ND 4.0 James’ Backstory by Kim Pearson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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