|
 
Junior Jennifer Tyler is a College of Education Ambassador
who wants to teach third grade after graduating from MU.
Photo courtesy of the College of Education
|
An Urge to Educate
With her stuffed animals meticulously positioned
in small desks and her tot-sized chalk board ready for the afternoon’s
lesson, a young Jennifer Tyler wanted nothing more than to someday
be like the other teachers in her family. “I’ve been
around teachers all my life, and I know how hard they work every
single day,” Tyler says. “So I thought about my future
very carefully when I decided I wanted to be a teacher. But it’s
still what I’ve always wanted to do.”
Tyler visited Mizzou during her senior year
at Centralia High School. And like so many others before her,
she walked into the Reflector
in Townsend
Hall and was in awe. “I walked in, and I immediately
felt at home,” she says. “I met a few of the staff
and advisers that day and they made me feel welcome.”
Now, as a junior, Tyler says she feels like
Townsend Hall and the College
of Education is her second home. “I love it here. It’s
that simple.”
A 4.0 GPA student and recipient of the 2005
College of Education Student of the Year award, Tyler’s
focus is elementary education. Many of her classroom experiences
have been in the second and third grades, and she feels comfortable
with that age group. “I think I’d like to teach third
grade,” she says.
The chance to get into real classrooms early
in her undergraduate experience is one of the things Tyler looked
forward to most when she began her freshman year. “I think
that’s one of the many things Mizzou does right,”
she says, speaking of field experience opportunities as early
as freshman year. “It allows you to figure out if teaching
really is what you want to do before you get too far into the
program.”
Becoming a College of Education ambassador
also has been a highlight for Tyler. Responsible for assisting
with the many events held throughout the year, Tyler has enjoyed
meeting alumni and getting to know members of the University’s
leadership. As an ambassador, she also participates in a one-hour
leadership development course, during which each of the 30 ambassadors
takes a turn leading the class discussion.
Because Tyler is only a sophomore, she has
several years of concentrated course work and student teaching
ahead of her. But she intends to savor every moment. “I
have such a feeling of family with the faculty and the staff and
my fellow students,” she says. “We all feel so connected
and everyone is treated as an equal. That’s very important
to me.”
Tyler counts College of Education alumni as part of her extended family as well. As the recipient of the Virginia Hultz Booth scholarship her freshman year, Tyler knows her success adds to the long history of accomplishments made by alumni.
And she plans to continue building on past successes. “I look forward to the challenges that lay ahead,” she says. “I know the time and effort good teaching requires, and I’m ready for that.”
Note: This story was published originally
in the summer 2005 issue of Reflections, a news magazine
for alumni and friends of the College of Education.
Archives
| Comments | Home SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscribe
| Change Your
Address | Unsubscribe
Copyright © 2007 — Curators of the University of Missouri
DMCA and other copyright information.
All rights reserved.
An equal opportunity/ADA institution.
Published by the Mizzou Alumni Association
Questions? Comments? E-mail comments@mizzoualumni.org
Last Update:
November 15, 2007
|
