Students receive $6,000 for future in chemistry education

11/02/07 - A moment of confusion and shock hit two University of Rhode Island students when they were awarded $6,000 scholarships during the summer.One recipient of the Hach Scientific Foundation Scholarship, sophomore Mitch Trainor, said, "It was a surprise. I got a call in the summer from Dean [Winifred] Brownell [of URI's College of Arts and Sciences]."

The other recipient, fifth-year student Matthew Hooper, had a similar reaction.

"My parents got a call in August, and I got home from work and they said, 'You need to sit down, the dean of arts and sciences called today,'" he said. "I thought I had missed a meeting or something, but they told me I had a scholarship."

The scholarship is awarded to students who double major in chemistry and education, and is based on academic merit and financial need. The two are the first URI recipients of the scholarship.

But both recipients have not been chemistry majors for their entire college careers.

Hooper, a Charlestown resident who came to URI as undeclared, can pinpoint the exact moment that he knew he wanted to be a chemistry teacher dating back to the spring semester of his freshman year.

He said he was fascinated by his professor's unique way of teaching Chemistry 103 and found the course simple. He said others in his class did not find it as easy but he was able to help them out.

"I had a friend who wasn't doing so well so she asked me to give her pointers," he said. "We took her old exams and went over them and the review sheets ... She went to go take the test and came back after they handed it back to show me the grade. She got a 94."

Hooper continued, "The fact that you can present [information] to someone else and they can absorb it and use it to accomplish a goal that they had, that was pretty much the exact moment that I decided, hey, I might as well teach it."

Trainor was a kinesiology major before switching to chemistry and education, and the New York resident said he was mostly inspired by a high school teacher. His uncle and grandfather are both involved in the chemistry business, but Trainor named his teacher as his real mentor.

"I've always been a science and math person," he said. "I enjoy learning about chemistry. It's interesting to me."

Although there was no AP chemistry at Trainor's small public school, he advanced to accelerated calculus and biology, as well as a regular chemistry class.

"He actually hadn't been teaching that much before us," he said in regards to his teacher. "He was just really nice and seemed to know a lot about the applications to chemistry from working in the chemistry business his whole life."

Trainor added that his teacher expressed interest in taking him on as a student teacher after he graduated.

Both students said they think teaching is vital to society's growth, and want to focus on high school education.

"I want to be able to pass on my knowledge to the future generations and hope that I can affect some of them to want to teach," Trainor said.

Hooper added, "There aren't enough people that are majoring in chemistry that are willing to pass up those corporate jobs that pay tons of money instead of investing their time and energy in producing more of those students that will succeed in that field. I just think it's a far nobler thing."

Both students said they were unsure of which graduate school they were attending, but wanted to stay in the New England area.

Trainor and Hooper will officially be awarded the scholarships at the third annual Hach's Scholarship banquet, which will be held Nov. 9 in Fort Collins, Col.