51视频

07/01/2025
By Madeline Bodin

Lizzy Staugler 鈥�24, 鈥�25 enjoys helping students find their way through the unfamiliar thickets of high school and college mathematics in much the same way she enjoyed guiding her young charges toward comfort and confidence when she worked as a summer camp counselor.聽

Staugler is one of four recent graduates from the Kennedy College of Sciences'听master鈥檚 program in mathematics who have landed their dream jobs as math teachers in high schools around the region.聽

Through these jobs, the graduates are not only fulfilling their career goals, but they are also helping to solve a nationwide, decades-long shortage of teachers who are highly qualified to teach STEM subjects at the high school and college level.

Because of her experience as a camp counselor and because her mother works in education, the possibility of a teaching career was always in the back of Staugler鈥檚 mind. However, UML鈥檚 UTeach program, and her experiences as an undergraduate learning assistant and graduate teaching assistant, put her firmly on the path to landing a math teaching job at her first-choice school, Haverhill High School, soon after earning her degree.

Tanya Kieu 鈥�24, 鈥�25 wasn鈥檛 certain where her math undergraduate math degree would take her, but teaching was a top option. 鈥淓nrolling in the UTeach program was the best step I could have taken,鈥� she says.聽

UML鈥檚 UTeach program was launched in 2011 as part of a federal effort to address the shortage of highly qualified STEM teachers. According to the U.S. Department of Education, there is a particular shortage of math teachers: Its data shows a current math teacher shortage in Massachusetts in every grade from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.聽

Kieu took her first UTeach class as a first-year student. The program, she says, 鈥渨as 30 credits of intensive mentorship. Through the program, I earned my initial Massachusetts teaching license for middle- and high school math before I did my master鈥檚.鈥� She has landed a job teaching math at Greater Lawrence Technical School in Andover, Massachusetts.

Sumudu Lewis, director of the UTeach program, says that 70 students have graduated as teachers, and those teachers have gone on to distinguish themselves in the classroom and beyond. She cites as a prime example Ralph Saint-Louis 鈥�18, 鈥�20, a biology teacher at Lowell High School who was named one of Time Magazine鈥檚 Innovative Teachers in 2022.聽

Lewis says that while some people think teaching pays less than other careers requiring a math or science degree, statistics show otherwise. Teaching salaries tend to increase with additional qualifications, she says, while the salaries for other science jobs tend to plateau. That means that with 10 years of experience, STEM teachers can make as much or more than their former classmates in other careers.聽

Lewis鈥檚 passionate case for teaching as a career, delivered to a first-year math class, inspired Staugler. 鈥淚 took the first UTeach course, I loved it, and I never looked back,鈥� she says.

Zachary Phillips 鈥�23, 鈥�25 first recognized his love of teaching as a freshman helping his friends and roommates with their various calculus classes. 鈥淚 liked calculus and I was good at it, so I helped people with it,鈥� he says.聽

It was no wonder then that volunteering as a tutor; becoming an undergraduate learning assistant, helping other students in recitation classes; becoming a math department ambassador; and later, as a graduate student, working as a teaching assistant, were all important steps along Phillips鈥檚 path to a job as a math teacher at his first-choice high school, Masconomet Regional High School in Boxford, Massachusetts.

Theresa Schille, who coordinates the math department鈥檚 teaching assistant program with department colleague Hung M. Phan, says that the program has already come a long way since it was created in 2023. 鈥淚 think we are doing a good job of preparing the students for what they want to do after they graduate. It鈥檚 amazing they can get jobs so quickly,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 wicked proud of them.鈥�

Sam Colby 鈥�23, 鈥�24 says that in addition to his teacher training through UTeach, working as a learning assistant and teaching assistant at UML gave him the familiarity he needed with the faster pace of teaching at the college level. This allowed Colby to successfully teach at Southern New Hampshire University for an academic year after earning his master鈥檚 degree.聽

Colby鈥檚 role models are his parents, who are both teachers in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was recently hired as a high school math teacher in the same school district where his parents work.聽

鈥淢y experience at 51视频 gave me the experience I needed to follow the career I'm passionate about,鈥� Colby says. 鈥淚t gave me the great friends and great experiences that made me who I am today. It isn't something I would trade for anything.鈥�