Graduate Assistant Spotlight: John Wylie
Hello everyone! My name is John Wylie and I am a Secondary Math teaching candidate and one of the new Graduate Assistants with the MSEd program. This Fall I am so excited to return to NU, having graduated from SESP in 2018 where I studied Learning and Organizational Change and Political Science. Evanston is home for me, as I grew up attending Evanston public schools, including Evanston Township High School, where I ran cross country, played volleyball, and was on the Math Team.
After graduating from Northwestern in 2018, I joined Teach for America and taught 9th-12th grade math in the small community of Newcomb, NM on the Navajo Nation. Working in New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation taught me, day in and day out, the power and resilience with which our youth persist. Despite the difficult living circumstances on the Navajo Nation, the close-knit, farming community within which I lived and worked relentlessly supported one another and embraced the mentality that success for students only exists once every student knows that they are safe and secure being themselves in the classroom.
As math teacher in the future, I aspire to create a sense of belonging for all students in my classes and for each student to see themselves as a creative problem solver, even if math is their least favorite subject. I am looking forward to meeting everyone in person as soon as possible and hoping that we can all be back together in classes soon!