Derek Chen (he/him) is a junior in Pierson College majoring in math. He has liked teaching since high school, but he didn’t know that he wanted to be a part of Education Studies when he initially got to Yale. Derek says it was EDST 110: Foundations in Education Studies, that encouraged him to think more deeply about the field. Now an Education Studies Scholar, Derek is a big fan of the YES Program. “Ed Studies is awesome,” he declares. “Hidden gem of Yale. The classes are great, especially because the people are great—all the professors, students; everyone cares about education.”
One of Derek’s favorite Ed Studies memories is from the Welcome Back Dinner he attended at the start of this semester. He reminisces about being able to catch up with his friends in the program and getting to “see what everyone is doing these days and where they’re headed.” Another favorite Ed Studies memory of his is taking EDST 205: Principles of Effective Teaching in the Secondary Classroom with Melissa Scheve last spring. Derek says it has probably been his favorite class at Yale so far. “Professor Scheve is amazing,” he notes. “I learned a lot about actual teaching.”
Teaching is Derek’s main area of interest in education. He explains, “I think all my classes in Ed Studies have implications for teaching, and help me to think about how to teach effectively, even when the class isn’t explicitly about teaching.” Though he isn’t quite sure where he’ll be after college—“My vision is actually very bad; without my glasses, I can’t even see clearly within a foot in front of me. Please ask me again in 5 or 10 years,” he jokes—Derek knows he will ideally be found teaching somewhere. “I do really want to teach [math] in the future in some capacity,” he reflects, “though I don’t think I quite figured that out until after I got involved with Ed Studies.”