{"id":1795,"date":"2025-09-29T11:42:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2025-10-31T12:49:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:49:41","slug":"csam-science-teaching-program-kicks-off-with-energy-and-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/2025\/09\/29\/csam-science-teaching-program-kicks-off-with-energy-and-excitement\/","title":{"rendered":"CSAM Science Teaching Program Kicks Off with Energy and Excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The event, hosted and led by student interns Staveena Rigby (Biology Sophomore) and Alexis Czerhoniak (MAT in Biology), set the tone for a program that combines food, facts, and fun with a strong sense of community.<\/p>\n<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column one-third\">\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/prism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/201\/2025\/09\/staveena-rigby-celebration.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/prism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/201\/2025\/09\/staveena-rigby-celebration.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"celebrating the start of something big\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staveena Rigby speaking at the kickoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><div class=\"prpl-column two-thirds\">\n<p>Students learned about the critical STEM teacher shortage, which is particularly severe in science and mathematics classrooms, and had the chance to debunk common misconceptions about the teaching profession. As highlighted during the session, science teachers enjoy competitive salaries, strong job satisfaction, flexible summers, and pathways into other careers, including medical school and graduate study.<\/p>\n<p>The program offers hands-on opportunities such as working with children in schools, tutoring, after-school activities, and internships, while also providing paid internships, tuition scholarships, peer-mentoring jobs, and extensive academic and career support. With flexible entry points for freshmen, transfer students, graduate students, and alternate-route professionals, the program is designed to welcome participants at many stages of their academic and career journeys.<\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"red\"><p>Being part of this program has shown me how powerful it is when students come together to support one another not just academically, but personally. Events like this remind me why building a community matters.<\/p>\n<footer><cite>Staveena Rigby, one of the program\u2019s student leaders<\/cite><\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column two-thirds\">That community spirit was evident throughout the event, as students engaged in interactive \u201cScience Teaching Bingo,\u201d conversations with peers, and reflections on what they hoped to gain from the program. Faculty also joined the event, underscoring the long tradition of teacher preparation at ÌÇÐÄvlog and its continuing commitment to addressing the teacher shortage crisis.\n<p>Biology professor and program director Scott Kight shared, \u201cI was amazed by the energy and excitement generated by students at the kick-off meeting. The STEM teacher shortage is a crisis in every sense of the word, but our students have it within them to change not just the crisis, but the very world we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CSAM Science Teaching Program currently has 15 active members and aims to double that number by the end of the Fall 2025 semester. Students at the kickoff were encouraged to serve as ambassadors and invite friends to join the community and explore science teaching as a career option.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"prpl-column one-third\">\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/prism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/201\/2025\/09\/alexis-czerhoniak-thanks.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/prism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/201\/2025\/09\/alexis-czerhoniak-thanks.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"thank you for joining our kickoff event\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alexis Czerhoniak sendoff at kickoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The next meeting will be held on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/montclair.campuslabs.com\/engage\/event\/11712542\" target=\"_blank\">Wednesday, October 8 at 2:00 pm in Schmitt Hall 327<\/a>, where students will discuss the kinds of internships and community service activities they would like to pursue this academic year. As always, all are welcome.<\/p>\n<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column one-half\"><span class=\"prpl-button full-width\"><a href=\"\/csam\/science-teaching-program\/\">CSAM Science Teaching Program<\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"prpl-column one-half\"><span class=\"prpl-button full-width\"><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/montclair_science_teaching\/\" target=\"_blank\">Follow us on Instagram!<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 40 students attended the launch of this program, an initiative designed to help undergraduates and graduate students explore careers in science teaching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":1800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teachers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1829,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions\/1829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/prism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}