Roni Habib, TAC, High School Math

FACTS: Roni is "the middle child of a wonderful family located in Palo Alto, California." He grew up in Israel for eight years and in Belgium for six. At the age of fourteen, during his freshman year of high school, he moved to Palo Alto. Once he learned English he found that he liked the U.S. He enrolled at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he majored in economics. After T.A'ing a few classes and taking a personal empowerment class, he discovered his passion for teaching and for real connection with people. Some of his other passions include singing (in choirs and operas) and playing basketball.

Roni says he's learned that "being a teacher requires you to be introspective professionally and personally. You have to deal with your inner issues (and issues do come up) because if you don't, trust me, your students will pick up on that."

THE INSIDE SCOOP: "What has surprised me the most about HGSE is the quality of the students (especially the ones in my program), faculty, and administrators - not on a professional level or scholastic level, rather on basic human level. I knew that my colleagues and teachers would be brilliant scholastically, so I wasn't surprised to be learning so much from all of them every single day. It's how friendly, humble, and caring they all are that surprised me. The TEP program puts so much emphasis on making students feel comfortable - they understand that it is hard to move to a new place, be in graduate school, and be a novice teacher all at once, and as a student I feel very much cared for and a part of special group where we all care for and about each other."

"In our society more than ever before, adolescents need loving, caring, and positive role models. Our boys learn coping mechanism such as repressing their feelings, while our girls are taught not to rock the boat. They need empathic role models who care about them unconditionally and who understand the pressures that they are facing in building their identities. Being a teacher is a privilege because you can see the difference that you are making everyday. When a student is running towards you smiling because she improved her SAT score and thanking you for helping her out, there are few feelings that are sweeter than that. When a student is having a hard day and comes to talk to you about it because he knows that it is safe for him to share with you how he is doing, you know you made a difference. Finally I also love seeing my students develop intellectually."