About Mariah
If you had told me two years ago that I would be teaching 10th grade chemistry at a project based school, I may have thought you were crazy! After working as a nurse for almost 6 years and a nurse practitioner for 2, I made the decision to switch to nursing education in order to spend more time with my two children, Will and Maddie. For the next 2 years, I taught Nursing at a local university and primarily developed lecture content on physiology and pathophysiology for common diseases.
Education proved to be much more challenging than I had originally expected and I found myself very frustrated with a system that didn't take the "whole child" into consideration. Additionally, my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD so the idea of teaching to the "whole child" became more personal. I did an extensive amount of research to understand her diagnosis and also find a school that would allow her to be the creative, innovative, passionate child that I knew her to be. All of my research led me to one place, High Tech High.
After one day of touring High Tech High's unique classroom setting and style of education, I was convinced that they were onto something. All of the students I met and interacted with were excited, engaged, forward thinking and most importantly, happy. I wanted to know everything about this school so I finished my last semester teaching at the university level and accepted a position as a teaching assistant at HTHI. Within a few months I was asked to teach 10th grade chemistry and I never looked back.
My journey to get to High Tech High was driven by a sincere passion to be a part of a "child centered" educational system. A place where the emotional and physical needs of each individual student are recognized and incorporated into their learning. I feel very fortunate to work with teachers that are passionate about education and continuously pushing themselves to improve for the sole benefit of their students. I hope to inspire my students to develop a love for science through inquiry, investigation and experimentation. I want all of my students to take chances, try things they've never done before and embrace "fear of failure" as a natural part of learning.
Education proved to be much more challenging than I had originally expected and I found myself very frustrated with a system that didn't take the "whole child" into consideration. Additionally, my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD so the idea of teaching to the "whole child" became more personal. I did an extensive amount of research to understand her diagnosis and also find a school that would allow her to be the creative, innovative, passionate child that I knew her to be. All of my research led me to one place, High Tech High.
After one day of touring High Tech High's unique classroom setting and style of education, I was convinced that they were onto something. All of the students I met and interacted with were excited, engaged, forward thinking and most importantly, happy. I wanted to know everything about this school so I finished my last semester teaching at the university level and accepted a position as a teaching assistant at HTHI. Within a few months I was asked to teach 10th grade chemistry and I never looked back.
My journey to get to High Tech High was driven by a sincere passion to be a part of a "child centered" educational system. A place where the emotional and physical needs of each individual student are recognized and incorporated into their learning. I feel very fortunate to work with teachers that are passionate about education and continuously pushing themselves to improve for the sole benefit of their students. I hope to inspire my students to develop a love for science through inquiry, investigation and experimentation. I want all of my students to take chances, try things they've never done before and embrace "fear of failure" as a natural part of learning.