Her Story
About Abril
I've been in the education field for about a decade, starting as a teaching assistant during graduate school. For the past 2 years, I've been working as a lecturer at St. Pete College, where I handle grading, give students feedback, plan lessons, and write a minimum of 3 letters of recommendation per semester. Unofficially, I also lead student-run seminars at my school and participate in these seminars by giving talks on mathematics. I just completed my PhD in mathematics, graduating just a day ago, which I consider my most notable professional achievement. My background in mathematics lends itself to financial mathematics as well, and although I'm currently teaching, long term I want to switch to financial mathematics and quantitative mathematics. I just received an offer to teach at a charter school in New York starting July 29th, where I'll be working as an IB math teacher.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Abril
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my family and friends, the people that surround me and give me the support that I need. Having that strong support system has been essential to everything I've accomplished.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was just to participate in seminars and participate in talks. It's the way we communicate with others, and it's how people get a general idea of your overall intelligence within the first few minutes of talking to someone. This advice has really shaped how I approach professional engagement and networking in my field.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Build community. Although math seems really daunting and scary, and it seems like it's something you do by yourself, actually, I think one of the best things I've ever done was just try to network with people and connect with as many like-minded individuals as possible. Don't try to go it alone - the connections you make will be invaluable.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Lack of funding is, I think, one of the biggest challenges at the moment in mathematics and education.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Consistency is the value most important to me. It's good that you can do maybe a lot of fancy math in a short period of time, but if you can't do it consistently, then it's kind of useless. It's not too helpful. Being able to show up and perform reliably over time is what really matters.
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