Bio Nerd Here to Make Science Fun

Ali C.

Hi! I am Ali, a young professional with extensive experience teaching and working in the field of biology.

After graduating as valedictorian in high school, I went to college at the University of Pittsburgh where I studied Ecology with a Chemistry minor and graduated summa cum laude.

I took Bio I my first semester and fell in love. Resultantly, I applied to be a teaching assistant. It was a wonderful experience and I continued every semester--six in total--until I graduated. I also TA'd ecology for two semesters. Here is an abridged list of some duties:

Wrote worksheets, exam reviews and test questions.
Attended lectures, recitations, review sessions and weekly meetings with professors.
Hosted weekly office hours--providing both one-on-one help and help to groups of up to 30 students.
Designed and hosted study skills workshops and mental health/resiliency workshops.
Participated in a 3 credit Teaching Assistant/Pedagogy course.

One student wrote this review: "I cannot stress this enough, seriously. At the very least, explore a career in education. You are approachable, friendly and have a serious passion for science that is contagious. I tried multiple office hours and yours was the only one I felt like I could trust. One sign that you're a good teacher is you can admit when you are not 100% sure about something. So thank you for being honest, for being prepared and for giving your 100%. It was a pleasure being a student in Bio I and you're one of the reasons why."

After college, I had a job in a microbiology lab in Pittsburgh and then I moved to Seattle where I worked at Roche, a DNA sequencing biotech, as a Senior Research Associate on the Biochemistry team.

Personally, I am a passionate rock climber and volunteer at the UW farm. I love relating science to the real world and would love to share that integrative passion with my students to show them how school will be relevant to real life and our precious planet.