Carly Shellhammer, MCMS, High School Mathematics

Facts:

Carly grew up in a suburb of Toledo Ohio and then attended the University of Cincinnati. She received a chemical engineering degree while at UC and then began working as a corporate plant/facility engineer for a chemical/soap manufacturer in Cincinnati. Later, in Boston, she found an engineering job designing chemical filters for semiconductor equipment. But she actually had the calling to be a teacher in the back of her mind since she was in high school. She became an engineer at the prodding of her high school chemistry and math teachers, and her family. In retrospect, she's not sure why the prodding was AWAY from teaching. While working too many hours in a very stressful job, her mind would go back to that calling. "I longed for a career that was more fulfilling and rewarding, and a career that would directly affect the lives of people -- not soap or filters. So, I decided to take the plunge and finally teach!"

Inside Scoop:

"I was pretty nervous changing careers -- it's a huge investment and I wasn't certain that I could do it. After spending 6 weeks team teaching and 3 months involved at our high school placements, I think I can do this and I know I'll enjoy it (knowing there will be bad days). I also learned that I have so much to learn. Teachers need to be continuous learners, from each other and from the kids. AND, I've learned SO much about what diversity really means. Coming from a very homogenous background, I've learned a lot about what a diverse student population (at HGSE and in the high schools) can contribute to learning. It's been an extremely challenging and wonderfully rewarding program so far."

"It's a great community, the TEP (TAC/MCMS) cohort is a great family and the administrators are a wonderfully caring bunch of people. It's actually hard to pick your electives because there are so many great classes that you could take from so many great professors. There is a ton of stuff to do, depending on how active you want to get."