My ambition is to be an educator. Education, to me, seems to be one of the better ways to live a life in service to others, and one to which I feel a particular calling. Education demands a broad skillset: deep knowledge of one's subject, organization, and the performance and creative skills to hold the attention of a room full of teenagers. Educators must be well-rounded people, and teaching classics requires a particularly broad knowledge base: one must juggle history, philosophy, religion, politics, culture, and more in order to give proper context to students.

Double-majoring in classics and religion at Hunter College, I had the opportunity to study and interpret foundational texts from a wide range of cultural traditions. My undergraduate course included not only a deep survey of the Greek and Roman worlds but also study of the Qur'an, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and many others. At UChicago, I have had the opportunity to deepen and broaden my knowledge base, adding Biblical Hebrew and German to my list of languages and studying Indo-European linguistics, which will help me point out connections between Latin and other languages with which students from diverse backgrounds may be familiar. I also was blessed to study under Dr. Margaret Mitchell, who, rare among professors with her incredible record of research and publications, displays a passion for teaching and an interest in innovating pedagogical techniques. For the next two years, I will return to Hunter College for its advanced certification program in teaching Latin.

I am confident in my work ethic and my ability to maintain a safe learning environment.