The TE&A department kicked off the Fall semester celebrating a first of its kind Teaching Fellow signing day. The event was thanks in large part to Dr. Colleen Eddy who helped secure a $2.48 million NSF Award as the Principal Investigator. The total Teaching Fellow package is worth $80,000, which goes toward students looking to forge careers in the STEM industry. Grant activities started in June, with a free STEM Summer camp for Denton ISD high school students led by interns who are recent UNT graduates in engineering, science and mathematics.

 Joshua Maverick Azarcon, a summer intern and engineering graduate, was celebrated during the Teaching Fellow signing day, as the first to receive the award. He will earn a Master’s of Education in secondary education with certification in Mathematics 6-12 and commit to teaching for four years in a high-need school.

“This master's program is going to take one year for the course work. It’s going to take one year for the paid internship I have to do. After two years, I’m going to apply to high schools,” Azarcon said. “I'm interested in becoming a high school math teacher, in geometry. Gen Alpha, they're very different from my generation. It's going to be an interesting challenge trying to understand the next generation.” 

After years of taking courses in electrical engineering and obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, Azarcon realized that teaching might by his true calling. As he reflected on his academic career, it was an old assignment that helped him re-ignite that teaching spark.

“I saw an old assignment that I had. In elementary school, one of the first careers that I wanted to be when I grew up was to be a teacher,” Azarcon said. I would be okay with doing this for the rest of my life. I’m happy that I finally figured out what I wanted to do.”