FACTS: Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Liz became inspired to teach while attending Middlebury College in Vermont. "I had a professor who exposed me to an entirely new way of thinking about education." After a variety of jobs in 
the education field, Liz showed up in Cambridge hoping to find the skills and tools to better educate her students. "My year in the Teaching and Curriculum Program exceeded all my expectations," she reports, "the people I met at Harvard continue to influence my ideas about education as we share our classroom experiences and continue to challenge each other to provide our students with the best possible education."
Liz returned to Denver and is currently teaching Freshman Social Studies at Denver West High School. "As a ninth grade Social Studies teacher in an inner-city public school, I aim to help my students understand that their actions have an impact on their own lives and the lives of others. I want to teach them to take action in their lives. Have I succeeded? I do not know. What I do know is that I have students who come into my classroom every morning when they arrive and every afternoon before they leave. I have students who tell me a particular class discussion made them think. I have students who would not dare speak their name out loud in class four months ago who now present their ideas in front of the whole class. What effect do I have on their lives? My students know I care about them. And while that may not be enough, it is at least a start."
INSIDE SCOOP: "TAC shaped the direction of my career as an educator and an activist. It pushed me to think in new directions not only about issues around teaching and learning but also about deep-seated societal problems around issues of poverty and race. My year in TAC strengthened my passion about education and gave me tools to think about the ways in which we can use our positions as educators to make changes in society.
"Throughout my year in the TAC program, I was engaged in conversations with my peers, advisors, professors and my mentor that energized me and left me filled with both new ideas and lingering questions."