Majors: Molecular Biology & Biochemistry (MB&B) and Education Studies,
Minor: Dance
Hi everyone! My name is Crystal Peña and I’m passionate about pursuing a career in education, specifically as a classroom teacher. My aspiration is to make seemingly difficult and unengaging subjects more accessible, fun, and taught in a culturally responsive manner. Thanks to Wesleyan and Education Studies at Wesleyan, I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in a variety of experiences that have shaped my views on education, helped me refine my career goals, and adequately prepared me to pursue this goal of mine.
I’ve been involved with the Writing Workshop for 4 (soon to be) 6 semesters through which I’ve been able to both tutor and mentor many Wesleyan students in a broad range of writing assignments and majors. Additionally, I had the privilege of being student liaison for the Education Studies department which brought me closer to the Education Studies network and gave me the opportunity to bring the Education Studies cohort closer together through the events my co-liaison and I planned. Most recently, I worked with Professor Dierker in remotely teaching my own section of Introductory Psychology to high school students in DC as part of the Ed Equity lab. Throughout all of this, I’ve proudly co-directed Wes Latin & Ballroom where I teach a variety of Latinx dance styles throughout the semester!
For the past two summers, I was a teaching fellow at Breakthrough Summerbridge (BTSB) in San Francisco where I taught 8th grade chemistry my first summer, 9th grade geometry my second summer, and the dance elective both summers. My experience at BTSB allowed me to not only grasp the logistics of teaching early on, but also explore how to implement different modalities of learning in the classroom, teach the student, not just the content, apply what I’ve learned through my educational experiences at Wesleyan, and make the profession a sustainable one for myself.
As I enter my senior year at Wesleyan, I’m excited to continue my current involvements in education as well as see what other educational pursuits I take on!
