Alumni Stories

Major: Classical Studies

Ranya Brooks ’13

I am currently enrolled in Harvard Graduate School of Education’s International Education Policy Ed. M. program. My research interests relate to education in emergencies, fragile and conflict-affected states, and refugee contexts. After completing my degree in the Spring of 2018, I hope to work in the field of Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution.

After graduating from Dartmouth, I was an instructor and administrator in various educational organizations: a fifth grade teacher at Pinnacle Academy, an international school in Oakton, Virginia; a home-school teacher and then Assistant Director for Academic Connections, a home-school and private-instruction company. Eventually, I started a freelance tutoring business in which I worked with domestic and international students in K-12 and higher education.

The intersectional nature of the Education minor curriculum has informed every pedagogical decision I have made and continue to make. The in-depth knowledge I gained as a result of my senior seminar research project, which focused on determining what if any cognitive benefits a bilingual learning environment might have on a young mind, has been invaluable during my time working with students of diverse cultures and backgrounds. The Education minor helped me become a better student, teacher, and practitioner, but perhaps most importantly, a more compassionate person.

Major: Middle Eastern Studies and Government

Tanya Budler ’15

I work for EF Education First, the largest international education company in the world, where I am the Ambassador Program Manager for EF High School Exchange Year.

After Dartmouth, I dabbled in all aspects of education—curriculum development, ESL, early childhood education, high school English, and academic research, but all of them left me wanting a little more. I started my career in the 360 Global Management Trainee program where I spent a year working on projects that focus on creating a beautiful customer experience for everyone that interacts with EF, then moved to High School Exchange Year where I am piloting a Student Ambassador program that aims to provide a community for exchange students for them to come together, share their experiences with future exchange students and explore their natural strengths.

The skills that make us irreplaceable as employees are the less tangible ones – the social and emotional skills. These are developed and bolstered in the Education Department and I know that any career would benefit from learning just how we learn and develop as people. I never found a natural place to fit in academically at Dartmouth based on my international interests until I found the Education Minor. Education is more than teaching. Every aspect of our life is education and I am proud to be able to work for a company that meets people where they are.

Major: History

Maggie Finn '16

I am a Match Teacher Resident at Match Charter Public Middle School in Boston, MA where I'm also working towards my Masters in Effective Teaching from the Sposato Graduate School of Education. Next year, I will become a full time middle school history teacher in a charter school!

My experience in Education 1 my freshman Fall convinced me to pursue education as a career. The approach supplements what I'm learning now working in a school and what I'm learning in grad school. I would have never learned all the neuroscience behind education otherwise! In addition to my Education minor classes, I really benefitted from internships in the education field, including the SEAD (Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth) Off Term Internship during my junior Fall and working as a teaching fellow with Breakthrough Collaborative over my junior Summer.

Major: Psychology

Rebecca Gotlieb '12

I am a PhD student at the University of Southern California advised by Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. In general terms I use the MBE lens to study social, emotional, and identity development during adolescence.

After Dartmouth I worked at Abt Associates, a research firm in Cambridge, MA as part of a team implementing, evaluating, and providing technical research assistance to program evaluators of various education-related projects. The projects I worked on included well-known federal initiatives such as the WIC program, or the I3 grant program, as well as other programs that provided scholarships and stipends to recruit STEM majors and professionals into teaching in high needs schools, provided professional development to STEM teachers in each state's highest-need districts, and provided free lunch to all students in high-needs districts, even those students not eligible by federal standards for free or reduced priced school meals.

The Education minor at Dartmouth showed me that an interdisciplinary approach to studying can be incredibly fruitful. I was inspired by the classes and research to make my career in the field of education and to pursue a PhD with an MBE focus in order to contribute to the research in this field.   

Major: Psychology

Shari Liu '16

I applied to graduate programs during my last year at Dartmouth and started my Ph.D. at Harvard a couple of months after graduation. My research focuses on intuitive psychology: how we explain and predict the behaviors of others. I'm particularly interested on what the form and content of this knowledge is like, and am currently pursuing this question through studies of infants and children.

My classes in the Department of Education sparked an initial interest in knowledge and development. Understanding how learning works and what cognitive and neural substrates it works on – goals central to educational research – motivate my thinking and research every day.

Major: Psychology

Cote Theriault '13

I work as a Tutor Coordinator and Data Analyst at Thomas College in Waterville, ME. Since graduating from Dartmouth, I earned a M.A. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College. During graduate school, I was a graduate research assistant for several projects on math learning in early childhood. I also worked as a resident assistant at Showa Boston and as a graduate assistant for BC’s TRIO Student Support Services program. Then, I worked for Upward Bound Math Science at the University of Maine during the summer before starting my work at Thomas.

The focus of the Education Department minor is distinctive and helped me feel prepared for graduate school. The dedication of the Education faculty to their teaching and to their students is incredible. Their commitment to working at the nexus of theory, research, and practice is one that I have adopted and incorporate into my work every day, through my emphasis on data-driven decision making when working with or on behalf of students.

Major: Hispanic Studies

Arturo Waner '13

Since graduation I have been teaching in low-income, high-minority charter schools in South Los Angeles. Currently I am teaching AP Spanish Literature and Spanish I and II at Math and Science College Preparatory Academy.

The Education minor has led me to combine my knowledge of cognitive psychology and neuroscience with everyday teaching practices to develop effective strategies that motivate students to take ownership of their education. Dartmouth prepared me for the many challenges and expectations that come from working with a variety of parties while focusing on the importance of effective and practical lessons for my students.