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1999-2005: St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School

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1999-2005: St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School

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Starting in first grade, I attended St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School. This is an Archdiocese of Atlanta affiliated Catholic K-8 school.

The woman pictured is my mother, who has worked as the Admissions director for a number of years. We've had either a student or employee at St. Jude dating back to 1999. One interesting connection to class: my mom has told me that she receives many applications each year from spanish speaking families who are seeking bilingual Catholic education. Many christians from South and Central America are catholic, and they are a growing population in the suburbs north of Atlanta. St. Jude offers religious services in Spanish, but as of now they do not have the ability to serve these potential students.

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Even though I don't believe it was required, we took the "Iowa" standardized test each year while I was at St. Jude. I don't remember much about the test other than the name.

I had to take the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) in 6th grade in order to submit a score to gain admission to Marist. I did not take any prep courses for this test, and I signed up at the very last second. My score was barely good enough to get in.

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Attended Marist School, an Independent Catholic school in Atlanta. Independent schools are not affiliated with the local Archdiocese, which gives them greater freedom in curriculum, hiring, etc. I had many of my most positive academic experiences here, especially in the 9-12th grades where I had several impactful teachers. They are the reason that I'm interested in teaching this age group. One of these teachers has even helped me formulate my plan to change careers.

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Attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. This is the only public school I've attended to this point. As mentioned in my reflection, I enjoyed my time here greatly, but I was frustrated by how big of a school it was and how easy it would be to get lost in the shuffle. It was also apparent that even though I was a below average student at my high school, I was significantly better prepared than my classmates, especially in any assignment that required finding sources and writing.

Above I included a picture of the plaque commemorating James Hood on Alabama's campus. Hood was the first black student admitted to the state's flagship university, but only after Governer George Wallace's infamous "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door." This plaque is now directly facing the door to Foster Auditorium where Wallace stood in June 1963.

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Worked at UPS from 2015-2017, Uber 2017-2020. No formal education during this period, although we were expected to learn new skills as the demands of the job changed. I was impressed at how quickly I could pick up programming languages through self-taught practice, and googled resources.

My only experience working with kids during this period was through coaching basketball. Above is a picture of my team that won their bracket in the Southeastern Catholic school tournament. Somehow, I didn't make this picture.

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Moved back to Atlanta to work at Marist during the COVID school year. I worked as a virtual learning proctor and co-taught a 12th grade economics class. During this time, I started planning out how I was going to change careers into teaching.

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Currently attending American University, a private research university in Washington, DC, in the MAT program. The only reasons I picked American were proximity and availability (of the program I wanted).

In order to gain teacher licensure, I had to take the PRAXIS Writing test in November 2021. Luckily my SAT Writing and Math scores from 2010 were good enough to exempt me from the rest of the PRAXIS Core test.

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I will be expected to take the PRAXIS Social Studies content area exam sometime before graduation. On top of that, I'll need to complete a year of unpaid internships. The question must be asked; what kinds of students are able to take an entire year off from full time paid employment in order to be trained? Are these the groups who are underrepresented in teaching?