This fall, The Fund for the City of New York and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced their 2013 Sloan Awards for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics and not one, but TWO teachers from CEI network schools were honored. Congratulations to Ms. Sau Ling Charlene Chan at Manhattan Center for Science & Mathematics (MCSM) and Ms. Yunseon Esther Kim at Francis Lewis High School!
Ms. Chan began her teaching career 18 years ago at Manhattan Center as a student teacher and now teaches Advanced Science Research (ASR) and Living Environment. ASR is a very unique 3 year program that Ms. Chan took over in 2003 where students practice research skills while teamed up with field professionals and the program is supervised by SUNY Albany. SUNY Albany has 11,000 ASR programs across the United States and they stated that MCSM’s was one of the overall top research examples of their program and rated them the top ASR program in New York City.
Ms. Chan and her students are no strangers to achievements and awards. In her past 10 years of teaching ASR, 5 of her students have been published in scientific journals, as co-authors with their mentors, her students have won over 550 awards (an average of about 50 every year), and 90% of participants choose STEM majors in college and complete their major in the designated 4 years (national average is 20% of students choose STEM majors according to Ms. Chan). She reminds her students that “Awards recognize you for your work in the past, not where you are going. If you become too satisfied with the progress of your work, your progress becomes stagnate.”
Ms. Chan believes scientists are what the future needs but strives to teach her students more than science, integrating in time management, organization, collaboration, teamwork and even camping skills on their overnight trips!
Ms. Yunseon Esther Kim started her career at 
Francis Lewis High School teaching Algebra and Geometry after completing the Mid-Year Teaching Fellows program. For her, teaching is personal because she watched relatives and friends drop out of school and succumb to drug abuse. It made her wonder if they had a teacher reached out, stopped them and asked how they were doing if things would have been different. And she believes math is the key. “At risk youth need to be logical thinkers, especially when it comes to spending and saving. Good thinkers make better choices outside of the classroom. You need to use logic and reason to solve problems in life.”
As a math teacher, Ms. Kim often hears “when will we ever use this in life?” so she find teachable moments in the classroom to show them that math is everywhere. She has even challenged students, asking, “Pick an object—there is math in it!” and then explains the object’s relationship to math. She also incorporates life lessons such as calculating how long it would take to pay back a credit card with interest.
Outside of the classroom, Ms. Kim has been asked by the students to supervise their clubs, ranging from table tennis to B-boys to Chinese chess. Many of the clubs she advises she did not have prior knowledge in but saw the students’ passion and didn’t want them to suffer because they didn’t have an advisor. She ended up learning from the students!
Both Ms. Chan and Ms. Kim started off with dreams of alternative career paths but both found their true passion in teaching. For that, all their students, colleagues and everyone at CEI are grateful!