FACTS:
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Felicia's first "teaching" experience happened in the sixth grade, when a teacher asked her to help a seven year-old with her reading. Before graduating from high school, she had tutored students in several subjects and knew that she would one day be an educator.
Felicia first came to Boston as an undergraduate at Harvard, studying engineering in the mid-1980s. After graduation, she moved to Atlanta and spent fourteen years in the telecommunications industry working for a Fortune 100 company. While in Atlanta, Felicia worked with children of all ages in tutoring and mentoring programs, and participated in forums focused on increasing student interest and achievement in math and science.
In 2001, she finally decided to pursue her "dream deferred" by preparing for certification as a middle school math teacher. After taking math courses for two years, she chose to attend the Teacher Education Program at HGSE because of its emphasis on urban education, the early opportunity to teach (in the Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy), and the MCMS program and its close-knit community of mid-career entrants into teaching.
Felicia now teaches math in a middle school in Atlanta.
THE INSIDE SCOOP: "TEP had a major impact on my fledgling career as a teacher. I had an incredible student-teaching experience; my mentor teacher and the rest of the faculty and my school were so supportive of my efforts to make a smooth transition from the corporate world into education. In fact, I now teach at the school where I completed my internship, so I continue to leverage those relationships to help me improve my teaching.
"But perhaps even beyond the professional benefits from being a TEP graduate, the personal benefits are almost immeasurable. Our cohort was filled with amazing, dedicated men and women whose commitment to urban education is really inspiring. I currently live with two classmates from the program and talk regularly with other classmates about our joys and triumphs in the classroom."
"I hope that the students in my classes see in me a teacher who wants them to succeed not only in math, but in life as well. So even though the primary effect I want to have on young people is to make math more interesting and accessible so that they will experience success, I want to help them develop a positive vision for their future and work with them to figure out how they can achieve their vision."