MAT Graduate Student wins Bruce F. Vento Science Educator Scholarship

Althea Faricy, a student in Hamline's MAT program in the Graduate School of Education, has been awarded the Bruce F. Vento Science Educator Scholarship. The competitive award, granted by the St. Paul Foundation, is given to students in upper level science education in recognition of Congressman Vento's commitment to public service and education.

Her future middle and high school science students won’t realize what they are in for when Althea Faricy, now an MAT student, takes up her position by the whiteboard. She can bring them up to speed on Nobel prize-winning genetics projects, and fill them in on her work studying the genome of a pig virus. But if they need help with a film, video, or literature assignment, she may be the go-to teacher on those assignments as well. That’s because Faricy has spent part of her professional life as a co-founder and administrator of a Twin Cities media arts organization and has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Hamline. But it is for her dedication to science education that Faricy was recently awarded the Bruce F. Vento Science Educator Scholarship.

The envelope containing the announcement “was kind of thick, so I knew it wasn’t just a letter saying ‘Thank you for applying… I opened it and I couldn’t believe it. I was jumping up and down!” The competitive award, granted by the St. Paul Foundation, is given to students in upper level science education in recognition of Congressman Vento's long-standing commitment to both public service and education. Faricy received the award, which provides $5000 for tuition expenses, this July.  The award “validates what I’m doing,” says Faricy, of her career shift. After leaving arts administration, she earned a double major in biochemistry and in genetics, cell biology, and developmental biology at the University of Minnesota. But it was when working as a genetics researcher with an eye on a masters or PhD, she realized she needed to make yet another change.

She had spent “almost a year doing molecular research on viruses—on pig viruses—on ONE pig virus.” (Ask her anything you need to know about Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus.) “And I watched my lab mates, who were in the masters and the doctoral programs, working long, long hours in the lab.” Recently married, Faricy was “rethinking my life choices and my career and how I wanted to spend my days and my weeks. And I knew I liked teaching.” The possibility of teaching was a major reason she was drawn to advanced science initially.

Setting her sights on the classroom, Faricy entered the Masters of Arts in Teaching program in Hamline’s Graduate School of Education this summer. She looked at other schools, but GSE’s more flexible scheduling allowed her to start quickly and move rapidly through the coursework. She also wanted a program with NCATE accreditation. And as an alumna, she was eligible for a discount on tuition.

Now a full-time MAT student, Faricy will begin student teaching in the fall of 2007. Students, please bring questions on science…and other subjects.