Hartford, Connecticut, July 16, 2018—The teaching interns in the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy (HMTCA) Summer Science Academy are all undergraduate students who are majoring in science and interested in careers in teaching. Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation – Teaching Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-TEU) program, these teaching interns come from colleges and universities across the country. One of the 12 NSF-TEU interns this summer is current Trinity College student Jessica Duong ’19.

Summer teaching interns
Left to right: Angela Kumm, HMTCA teacher and NSF-TEU mentor; Zuleyka Shaw ’06, HMTCA teacher and former mentor; NSF-TEU interns Madeline Crump (Vassar College), Jessica Duong ’19 (Trinity College), Thomas Schindelman (Vassar College), Oliver Yang (Williams College), Alexa Castellana (Washington and Lee University), Angela Zhang (Bryn Mawr College), Linda Zhang (Mount Holyoke College), and Maria Salameh (Brown University).

Because starting a teaching career is such a difficult task, the teaching interns have had mentors to observe and comment on their teaching and student learning. On July 2, mentor teachers from HMTCA met with the NSF-TEU interns to talk about highlights and challenges in teaching high school science. Trinity College alumna Zuleyka Shaw ’06 also joined the conversation as a former mentor and current HMTCA science teacher.

The HMTCA Summer Science Academy and NSF-TEU programs are led by Trinity College Science Center Director Alison J. Draper and Dr. Kurt Love. Learn more about the program in a story from The Trinity Reporter (Winter 2017), “Teaching to Teach.