My name is Alicia Reynolds I am originally from Havelock, North Carolina. I am a sophomore, Mathematics Education major at Elizabeth City State University, located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I chose to pursue teaching as my career because I have always wanted to be in a profession where I made a difference and was able to impact lives in a positive way. I have also always had a passion for working with children. As a teacher I will be able to achieve both of these dream and leave a lasting impression on all my students by helping shape their lives for the better.

I am currently in my second year participating in the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing and Education Research (CERSER) program; it has been an extremely rewarding program thus far. I have been the opportunity to meet many influential people and attend a variety of beneficial events. I spent the majority of my first semester receiving training that taught me how to navigate and execute the basics of various programs such as; Linux, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop. At the start of second semester I began conducting research under my mentor Dr. Darnell Johnson as a part of the math education team. Our research was titled “The Impact of 2006-2012 CReSIS Summer Research Programs that Influence Student's Choice of a STEM Related Major in College.” This research focused on the link between student participation in the annual summer research program hosted here at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) and their choice of a Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) related undergraduate major.  According to research separate from our own we learned that the United States will soon experience a shortage of Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) professionals. We hypothesized that the best way to reverse this statistic is to increase the number of underrepresented individuals; mainly minorities and females. My team and I created a survey to gauge the effectiveness of the summer program which we mailed out to every participant of the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Summer Program from 2006-2012 and used this data to calculate the overall attitude of the students who participated in the program. Our research concluded that the summer program was successful in exposing students to STEM related fields. Our future work includes determining what the participants majored in and if their choice was at all affected by the program.

Being a participant of CERSER also gave me the opportunity to attend conferences including the Black Engineer of the Year Awards. This was truly an inspirational experience, seeing so many different types of professionals from all over the country all coming together to acknowledge the achievements of their peers was a joy to witness; especially being that a majority of the honorees were minorities. I look forward to going again in 2014. Research Week was another beneficial learning experience I had the opportunity to participate in, hearing about students’ internships gave me something to aspire towards. Learning about graduate school success was also beneficial even though I was only a freshman; this seminar helped me get in the mindset of preparing for my future. Dr. Stephen Hale informed us that it is never too soon to start building relationships with potential mentors. Undergraduate Research Day on campus provided me with practice presenting my teams’ poster. The most satisfying opportunity I got to take advantage of was the Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of New Hampshire. I met countless inspiring professionals all advocating my success. I was on campus for about a day and a half, and even in such a short amount of time I had the opportunity to meet and converse with many potential mentors for my summer internship experience. At the conclusion of my visit, after a meeting with Julie Williams the Senior Vice Provost in charge of engagement and academic outreach and Erik Froburg who was as our guide during the conference, we came up with a summer internship experience tailored personally for me.

 For the summer of 2013 I returned to the campus of University of New Hampshire for six weeks participating in their Kids Eager for Engineering Program with Elementary Research-based Science (KEEPERS) program which is focused on exposing students’ in grades 2-5 to various engineering fields by using hands-on activities, as well as providing new K-8 teachers with classroom experience and an overall professional development opportunity. As a math education major I was extremely enthusiastic about this internship. The program was indeed a very rewarding experience. Matt Endrizzi and Abby Hatfield are high school science teachers and took the lead on the program. Some days we also worked with professionals at the university that were experienced in the varying fields. There were three different groups of kids for one week each from 8 am until 1 pm; each group had 20 kids with a variation in grade level. Having the opportunity to work with these students was a very rewarding experience. Although participating in this internship meant leaving my friends and family for six weeks, I am glad I did because I gained experience that can never be replaced or duplicated.

My greatest goal is to take teaching to the next level and become an exceptional math educator as well as a dependable mentor for students and help them reach their full potential in the classroom and also overcome struggles they may encounter. I believe that the best way to achieve this goal is to stay in school and obtain my masters and doctoral degrees.  I know that in order to be the best I must be well educated, and I am prepared to do all the work that earning a top grade education will require. I am looking forward to working in the CERSER program and gaining the experiences to help me become well rounded and successful.