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After
growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, I moved "far away" to
Michigan to attend Alma College. During my time at Alma, I
studied math, played bassoon in the Alma Symphony Orchestra, and played
cymbals in the Kiltie Marching Band. Alma College is a small
liberal arts college in the "middle of the mitten". I graduated
with a BS in math and a plan to move to Chicago and become a flight
attendant.....things did not go exactly as planned, which is a good
thing! Since Chicago is one of the closest big cities to Alma, quite a
few people end up there after graduation. I spent a couple years
working there in the insurance industry, but I missed math so I
headed back to Houston to become a high school math teacher. |
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After
teaching high school for five years, I decided to take a little break
and earn my masters degree in math from Sam Houston State
University. I got paid to go to school! How great is that? I
absolutely loved my time as a graduate student at SHSU. I loved
the challenging classes and teaching at the college level. I
especially enjoyed my abstract algebra and topology classes. After
having a break from school, I was much more serious about my studies
and realized that I wanted to continue my education even further.
In my second year at SHSU, instead of applying for HS teaching
jobs, I was applying to graduate schools. After lots and
lots of deliberating, I decided to head to UNT for my PhD! |
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So
now, here I am at the University of North Texas, working toward my PhD
in mathematics. Ten years ago, I never would have dreamed this
would be happening. I spent my first year taking core classes and in my
second year started working with Dr. Anne Shepler, learning about
noncommutative algebra. UNT has a great group of algebra students. We
have a weekly seminar just for grad students to practice giving talks
and to learn about new things. We also collaborate with students
from other schools each semester to host the Graduate Algebra
Symposium. This year, Colin Lawson and I founded the UNT Math Grad Seminar where we discuss issues relevant to all of the math grad students. Sometimes it's serious and sometimes it's just fun. Grad students also take part in weekly trivia at a local bar, intramural sports, and frequent lunches. Each month, the women get together for dinner and the occasional happy hour. students. |