On the first day of first grade, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, Lizbeth Lozano (MY ‘25) responded “teacher.” Since then, her interests have not wavered.
When Lizbeth first arrived at Yale, she thought she wanted to be a Chemistry professor, but Education Studies pulled her in a different direction. Her first course, EDST 211 (Latinx Communities and Education in the United States), “combatted the monolith of being a Latinx student in K-12 education.” Unlike most of her classes, she was able to personally relate to the course content.
Then, in the fall of her sophomore year, Lizbeth applied and was accepted into the Intensive Certificate program. “I’ve taken more Ed Studies classes than I have classes in my own major,” Lizbeth confesses. “If there was an Education Studies major, I’d do it.”
Since then, much of her coursework has focused on early childhood education, where she examines child psychology and its implications on public policy. In CHLD 127 (Theory and Practice of Childhood Education), Lizbeth’s knowledge cemented through in-person classroom observations. EDST 225 (Child Care, Society, and Public Policy) exposed her to the politics of early childhood education. These multidisciplinary frameworks have culminated in EDST 436 (Translating Developmental Psychology to Education Practice), her favorite class thus far. The classroom discussion and readings have pushed her to realize that “the school system does not align with scientific findings on how we learn best.”
Nowadays, Lizbeth has found intersections between her disciplinary interests, applying child psychology to STEM education. She hopes to reform STEM to reach students of diverse backgrounds, already putting her vision into action as a MathCounts coach at L. W. Beecher. For instance, to teach basic physics, she encouraged students to roll markers down to the floor and measure their speed. She has also worked at East Rock Community Magnet as a K-8 classroom assistant.
In the future, Lizbeth aims to teach in public schools, then use her data science background to critically examine education and envision solutions to combat inequities.