When she took introductory chemistry, Stanislaus State junior Cecilia Alvarez was aided by supplemental instruction offered by the Learning Commons.
By the time the semester ended, her supplemental instruction (SI) leader suggested Alvarez join the team that attends classes with high dropout and fail rates and tutors students who may be struggling.
The experience of working with college students has been so rewarding that Alvarez is in her fourth semester as a supplemental instructor and now hopes to teach college biology rather than at a high school, which had been her plan.
The McNair Scholar insists that her teaching goal will not change, despite her summer plans.
Alvarez will spend eight weeks in the prestigious Stanford Summer Research Program working in a lab with a faculty member and research mentor on a project they’ll complete before she leaves.
“It’s a bit intimidating, because I’m a bit of a slower worker, but I'll put all the time and work into it to do it well,” said Alvarez, who chose Stanford over a similar opportunity offered to her by Johns Hopkins. “They probably all have inspiring stories to share. I’m excited for that as well.”
Alvarez’s story is inspiring, too.
Her parents met in her mother’s native Mexico, both attended Modesto Junior College and her father, a native of San Francisco, earned a civil engineering degree from University of the Pacific.
Her parents and grandparents strongly supported education. Her grandfather worked many years cleaning movie theatres to support his family and provide for their education.
“I am proud to be a symbol of their hard work and all the sacrifices they have made, and especially to serve as a symbol of what is possible, being a Latina in STEM,” Alvarez said.
She began her quest for a STEM career early.
“I liked science experiments,” Alvarez said. “Every year my school would have a Science Olympiad, and they would have a list of topics to choose from and there would be a big event at MJC, and you’d compete against other schools.”
Furthering her interest was a science kit her dad bought her at Barnes and Noble, and she also tried science experiments she saw on YouTube.
The traveling National Ag Science Center visited her school, and Alvarez got to participate in a lab experiment, extracting DNA from a strawberry.
“I wanted to be able to be a part of that and create those experiences for other students when I was older,” Alvarez said.
She also was inspired to teach by her high school biology teacher, who made her class work collaboratively on projects and inspired critical thinking.
“I was already thinking of going into teaching, and after the way she taught, that made me want to teach, especially biology.”
Still, she was unsure of becoming a biology teacher as she registered at Stan State.
“I wanted to take classes to learn more about biology before making the decision,” Alvarez said. “Something that made me more confident about biology was attending Stan State’s STEM Discovery Academy the summer before my freshman year. There were about 20 of us, and they let us stay on campus for two weeks. They offered us a lot of resources. They showed us how to do labs in all the departments. They took us on field trips. We got to meet a lot of other students who were going into STEM. I felt like that prepared me to enter STEM and have confidence I could do that. They were very motivating.”
She found a mentor in Professor Sarah Bissonnette, whose classes are like those Alvarez enjoyed in high school.
“The thing that impresses me most about Cecilia is her deep desire to learn,” Bissonnette said. “I once asked her where that came from, and she told me it was because she wanted to learn everything that she was being taught well enough that she would be able to teach it to her future students. That commitment to her future students is so impressive to me, and I’m thrilled that her students will be in such excellent hands.”
Bissonnette put the idea of teaching college in Alvarez’s head, as well encouraging her to apply for the Stanford Summer Research Program to see if that was an area she may want to pursue.
“I’m so excited t see what she does with this opportunity,” Bissonnette said.
Despite her success in biology and chemistry courses in pursuit of her Bachelor of Science in biology and acceptance as a McNair Scholar and in the Stanford Summer Research Program, Alvarez doesn’t pretend to be whiz kid.
“The reason I’m going into teaching college is that when I was growing up, I struggled with learning,” Alvarez said. “It takes forever to do assignments. My goal is to understand them and do them well and put my best effort into doing them. I feel that has brought me far. It’s helped me really understand topics. I think that’s also why I like teaching. I like to break things down and help people who might be struggling to understand the process and enjoy it instead of dreading it.”
In addition to helping fellow Stan State students through her SI role, Alvarez has had opportunities to teach younger students as a STEM Ambassador. She taught them how to make rock candy and, reaching back to her own childhood, helped them extract DNA from a strawberry.
She expects to take those experiences with her when she reaches her goal of teaching college biology.
“Maybe at the college level I can create a club to reach out to elementary students in the community, and share with them the opportunities of higher education, especially in STEM,” Alvarez said.
