Student Profiles
Class of 2013
Matt Maley ’13 is a Teacher Education Minor. He chose the Teacher Ed minor as a step towards becoming a high school math teacher, an aspiration he has had since high school. Matt is a Math major at Bates and will be completing his capstone seminar about generalized symmetric spaces. During his four years at Bates, he has worked in the Lewiston High School, at the Tree Street After School Program, and for a non-profit in Lewiston that worked towards safe and affordable housing for all Lewiston residents. Through these experiences he emphasizes the importance of getting involved in Lewiston community by spending time off the Bates campus and talking to people that live, and in some cases have lived, in the city for their entire lives. In addition to his work in the community Matt is also a very dedicated tutor in both the Peer Writing Center and the Math-Stats Workshop. His favorite class in the Education Department was entitled, “Educating for Democracy.” Over the summer Matt takes his experience teaching in Lewiston to a fine arts summer camp that teaches students who normally do not have much exposure to the arts during the school year all about theater and music. Additionally, last summer he was the teaching assistant for the Artificial Intelligence class at the St. Paul’s school summer program for top-performing 11th grade students in New Hampshire. Next year Matt plans to head out West to Colorado to teach at the High Mountain Institute, a school that weaves Outdoor Education and classroom instruction into one curriculum.
Libby Egan ’13 is an Education Studies Minor. She became hooked on studying education by Patti Buck’s first year seminar, Exploring Education Through Narratives. Libby is a Sociology major at Bates and is writing a Sociology thesis with a focus on education by starting a book club for middle school girls at the local YMCA. She will analyze how reading about strong protagonists can empower girls to navigate social issues in their own lives. She finds constant connections between classes for her major and classes for the Education Studies minor and feels particularly lucky when classes are cross-listed between the Education and Sociology departments like ED/SOC 308 entitled, Education Reform and Politics. Libby loves working in Lewiston’s after school programs. She loves the opportunity to really get to know the students and become more of a mentor rather than simply a tutor. She feels as though the field placements required for every Education class are wonderful opportunities to see theories in action and to make a positive contribution to social change. She asserts that even though interactions with students in the classroom or after school program may seem small on a global scale, they are huge for the students. Libby recently studied abroad in Africa where she got to spend some time learning about the way the Education System works abroad. Libby wants to be a social studies teacher at the secondary level. She is pursuing fellowships and masters programs that will lead to her teaching certification. After being so inspired by her work abroad she is also exploring the possibility of teaching English in another country.