Personal Story
I’ve worked as an engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for
seven years. I work on the science planning teams of both Project Galileo and
the Cassini Program, two magnificent spacecraft that are uncovering the
mysteries of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, respectively.
While I’ve had the opportunity to participate in some amazing
discoveries, I was surprised to realize how unaffected I was by these
triumphs. I am a good engineer, having received various accolades and
promotions. Yet I have no passion, no heart for engineering work.
My discontent drove me to meet with a professional career counselor. With
her help I was able to see that the reasons for my dissatisfaction were rooted
in the fact that there were parts of my personality that were being completely
ignored in my engineering work—namely, my people skills and my desire to
work with students. The career counseling sessions helped me to see that
teaching would allow me to naturally and effectively combine my technical and
scientific skills with my relational abilities.
I started gathering information about getting a teaching job in high school
science, and I soon realized that without state certification, my options were
extremely limited. I have several friends and family members who are teachers
in Illinois, and through them I became aware of several alternative
certification programs geared specifically towards mid-career professionals
like myself.
This is not to say that my decision was an easy one to make. First I had to
acknowledge and accept the fact that I was going to face a sizable decrease in
salary. Then there was the pressure I received from my colleagues and even
family members who couldn’t understand why I would ever want to leave NASA
to go teach high school. One of my supervisors even promised to hold my old
job for me for the day when I “…come back to my senses.” These things
were said in jest, but they still hurt.
However, I cannot deny my call to the profession of teaching. It’s
something I’ve thought about doing since I was in high school. However,
after graduation I allowed people to talk me into pursuing engineering in
order to “do something more important.” But my heart is in the classroom
working with students—helping them, guiding them, teaching them.
The passing of the enabling legislation for alternative certification
programs has been a blessing for me and for my colleagues in my cohort. It has
allowed us to pursue our callings. I know there will be plenty of days in the
classroom when I’ll feel overwhelmed, when I’ll feel like I haven’t
reached a single student all day. I know that the changes in my finances are
going to require stricter personal discipline. Yet these challenges seem minor
in comparison to spending a lifetime going to a job that I’m not passionate
about. Life is too short for my job to be “just a job.”
As I’ve begun my alternative certification program,
I’ve started to find some good science resources on the Internet. If
you’re interested in teaching science, you may find them useful as well.
Illinois
Alternative Certification Programs
