May Ng
Mark Keppel High School
Alhambra, CA USA
"The biggest thing that any teacher would like to have is to know that we’ve reached out to these kids and, even when they’re not in front of us, they still remember us."
Career Roadmap
May's work combines: Education, Science, and Teaching / Mentoring
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Set your boundaries before you start. By all means, work hard and put in the extra effort, but make sure you're not overdoing. Set boundaries for yourself so that you don't burn out. For example, I'll set a specific time of day that I will stop working, go home, and leave the rest of my work for the next day. That's a good boundary to have as a teacher.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Biology/Biological Sciences, General
University of California, Los Angeles
Certification
Teaching Credential
California State University, Los Angeles
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I didn’t originally plan on pursuing teaching, but I realized that I really enjoyed tutoring and volunteering at local schools.
2.
I graduated with a degree in biology and then took a year off to really think about what I wanted to do with my life.
3.
All signs were pointing to teaching, so I decided to go back to school for my teaching credential.
4.
I started my teaching career as a substitute for an honors biology teacher who was on maternity leave—the fact that I had a biology degree and could actually teach the content helped a lot!
5.
Within a year, I had taught a handful of different biology classes and saw the value I could bring.
6.
I’ve been teaching for 18 years now, and currently teach both life sciences and statistics.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Family:
A lot can go wrong as a teacher. You should pursue something else instead.
How I responded:
I grew up with family members who worked in education but some of them went through many hardships in the profession. For example, my aunt was a teacher and worked so hard at her job but still faced a lot of aggression from students and their parents. My family members discouraged my cousins and me from pursuing teaching because of that. I eventually realized that I really enjoyed tutoring and mentoring, so I decided to pursue teaching anyway. There are hard times of course, but I love teaching.