by Harper Willis
ALUMNAE IN EDUCATION Teaching in middle and high schools, pursuing advanced degrees, joining the ranks of administrators or journalists…Barnard alumnae share their insights about professional choices
Photograph by Dorothy Hong
Maria Rivera Maulucci ’88 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, BARNARD COLLEGE
Maria Rivera Maulucci studied biology and worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant, helping non-majors get through their biology requirements. “I had no training in education theory … but I began to realize how rewarding teaching could be.” After graduation, Maulucci began teaching at De La Salle Academy, a private middle school in Manhattan that prepares underprivileged kids to enter top parochial and prep schools. “I thought I would only stay for two years, but I wound up staying for five,” she says. “I realized how vital it was to make the classroom a fun, engaging place for students. 22
We took field trips and did special projects, and I got to know each one of my students individually—I discovered the joys of teaching.” Maulucci earned a master’s in forestry from Yale and a PhD in science education at Teacher’s College. “I learned during my post-graduate work that there is an art and a science to teaching,” says Maulucci, who joined Barnard’s education faculty in 2004. “It’s important to be passionate. But it’s equally important to understand the craft of teaching, both in terms of pedagogical strategies and of the political and social context in which teachers find themselves.”