Catherine Schmitt joined the Rice community earlier this year as a new science teacher. Before starting at Rice she graduated from Hamilton College, studying Neuroscience and Philosophy.
She teaches Biology, Chemistry, and AP Environmental Science and is the advisor of the Neuroscience club. Also in the Spring she will take over as the Ultimate Frisbee coach.
What was your first impression of Rice?
I went to Middlebury High School, so we played Rice with a lot of sports, and I played frisbee against Rice, so I had a pretty adversarial relationship with the school, to be honest…But I guess my first impression of Rice certainly did not hold true. And the competition that you feel between high schools is normal. I think when you go to one high school, you often don’t like another high school, but I can say that I certainly like Rice a lot more now, and it’s been really fun to see the community and see why people like it here so much .
What was your first day like? Were you nervous?
Oh, for sure, I’m still nervous most days (laughs). I guess I’m taking it day by day…I’m learning so much every day…So it’s been really fun to learn a lot, a lot, a lot about teaching and classroom management, especially because I didn’t learn that in college. In college, I learned a lot of material and not a lot of how to design a lesson plan, or how to like manage a classroom or do behavioral management. So that’s been a really big learning curve, but also a really exciting learning curve, because I feel like I’m learning a lot every day.
Why did you want to be a teacher?
It probably goes back to studying philosophy in college. I had one really great professor in college who specialized in pedagogy and philosophy, pedagogy is the study of how you teach. He was running a summer philosophy camp, basically that brought in innovative, experimental teachers to come to teach innovative philosophy courses. And so I went to the camp one summer, and then he hired me as the Assistant Director for the following two years. So I really became interested in teaching by working with that camp and hiring instructors and talking to philosophy students from all over the world, because we were bringing in people from China and India and Singapore and the UK to come teach, and seeing the different ways that they taught, and how you can teach in different experimental ways. It really made me interested in teaching innovation and what teaching should be like and could be like. So that probably inspired me to apply to teach for the following year, because it’s something that I really liked, and it was a social thing, which I enjoyed.
What inspired your love of science?
I’ve always been interested in the mind and how the human brain works, and I think that led into my studies in philosophy and neuroscience, and I really see them as disciplines that are exploring how we perceive and how the mind works and how we make decisions and how we choose to live. And so I think my study of science mostly comes out of my fascination with the human brain and how we perceive and the cogs and elements that go into that. So I would say I’m probably mostly a molecular and human-focused scientist. So environmental science has certainly been a stretch for me, but in an exciting way.
Why did you choose Rice?
I chose Rice probably for the community. I think it’s really important to me that it’s a community-focused school. I really love the Catholic aspect of it because I think all the students here want to be here, and also want to be supported by a community and have a community and have school spirit and school pride. So I think it’s really important to me that we have a community that supports each other and is kind and is service-focused and people-focused.
How has the transition from college student to teacher been?
It’s been really cool to get my first apartment and get a cat and move to a whole new location. But it’s also been kind of like coming home in a way, since I’m originally from Vermont, so it’s been really fun to be closer to my parents and reconnecting with a lot of my high school friends who live in the area, so that’s been really cool. But working is very different than college in a way that I kind of like, where it’s not, certainly not nine to five because I’m working more than a nine to five, and it’s more of a community-based aspect, but I’m really enjoying getting to do more teaching and feeling like I’m finally applying what I’ve learned and growing in a professional way and also building more community, which has been nice.
On behalf of The Knight’s Banner, welcome to Rice Memorial High School, Ms. Schmitt!
