Jason Gipson-Nahman, TAC '07, High School Physics

Facts:

A native of Houston, TX, Jason's early fascination with math, science and Spanish led him to pursue both a BS in mechanical engineering and a BA in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin. Lured by the attractiveness of the dot-com boom, he joined a small start-up company and spent more than two years working as a software consultant. Initially, the weekly travel was fun and the job was definitely financially rewarding, but sitting in airports and living in hotels soon grew old. So, Jason left corporate America and went to the Dominican Republic to work as a Peace Corps volunteer. During his first two years, he taught computer courses in a small town in the northwest part of the country, on the Haitian border. He extended his service for a third year to work as a volunteer coordinator, and spent a lot of time working with the Dominican Ministry of Education.

Jason fell in love with teaching and found his true passion in the classroom. He came to TEP to pursue more formal training in teaching. Now, he is trying to apply the lessons he learned while working in education in a developing country to the numerous educational challenges we face here in the United States. He teaches high school physics - both conceptual and AP - at TC Williams High School in Alexandria, VA.

Inside Scoop:

"I definitely wanted to teach in an urban setting, so TEP's program focus was perfect. Also, I was coming directly from the Dominican Republic, so I knew that Boston's large Dominican and Haitian populations would help me make a smoother transition back to life in the United States. I loved being in an area that was so incredibly ethnically diverse. Also, I really liked having access to other institutions like MIT, where I took one of my electives."

"The HGSE community, as a whole, was incredible. My wife (my girlfriend at the time) also came with me to HGSE the same year. We had never been around a group of so many dynamic, motivated and inspirational people. Today, our closest friends are fellow HGSE grads, and we speak regularly about our work in education from our various points of entry into the field."

"As a high school teacher, with primarily 11th and 12th grade students, I am one of the last people my students will see before they are sent out into the world and treated as adults. I believe it is my job to prepare them to make that transition and help them develop the skills that they will need to be successful. More specifically, I want to help them learn how to think critically. I want them to be able to see a problem and know how to start thinking about solutions. I want them to become scientifically literate in a world dominated and driven by new technologies. I believe I am doing that through teaching."