Her Story
About Angelique
I dedicated 37 years to education, with 33 years as a full-time teacher and 4 years as a substitute. For my first 27 years, I worked as a middle school science teacher. After experiencing a summer as a STEM teacher at a camp for rising 8th graders, I became so excited about exposing youth to STEM-related jobs and engineering design challenges that I asked my principal to let me start an elective class called STEM Career Exposure for grades 6 through 8. In this class, I would bring in STEM professionals to speak with students about their careers, take them on what I call industry investigations to places like manufacturing companies and Drexel Medical School where they could see cadavers in the gross anatomy lab and learn from medical students. Students would complete capstone projects researching prospective careers, outlining universities that offer those careers, and understanding financial aid. I'm incredibly proud that two of my former students who did dentistry capstone projects in my class are now attending dental school at NYU. Even though I'm at the end of my career, I still substitute at the school where I gained tenure and retired from, and I get to encourage and inspire students by sharing stories of former students who are now working as architects in London and in other STEM fields. I currently serve on the Abington school board and as a board member of the Abington Educational Foundation, staying involved in all things education.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Angelique
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say it's very important to research whatever a person's interested in to help make a linear decision about the type of career they might be interested in. As a baseline, get a personality inventory - it could be online or administered by a professional or psychologist. When we take the personality inventory, it will help an individual gauge their actual interests and find something that might be attainable, helping to prevent any future regrets. I think to eliminate any future regrets is to have someone administer a personality inventory so that they could go into a field with a good fit regarding their personality as well as their intellectual abilities. Also, shadow individuals in different fields, and if you can't shadow, at least interview people. Talk to your pediatrician during yearly checkups, interview the Xfinity worker working on cable in your home - communicate with individuals in different fields that you come into contact with. The more knowledge or experience you have and the more curious you become, there's not that level of intimidation. You can more competently look an adult in the eye and ask questions about what they do from day to day as a gauge. Become like a pseudo-interviewer towards individuals in different fields and ask questions.
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