Name: Grace Eysenbach
Class: 2020
Concentration: Electrical engineering
Hometown: Belmont, Mass.
Internship focus: Teaching math and physics
Internship location: Ashinaga Africa Initiative in Nansana, Uganda
Describe your internship.
Ashinaga Africa Initiative selects the top applicants from each country in Sub-Saharan Africa and brings them to Uganda for an intensive, year-long college preparation camp before providing them with scholarships to study abroad in the U.S., U.K., or Japan. My primary job was to develop and teach the math and physics curriculum for the students. The students complete an hour of math every day, and three hours of physics every week, excluding office hours. I also acted as an application mentor for the U.S.-bound students, helping them research universities and develop their common application essays. On the side, I helped research NGOs and schools in other Sub-Saharan African countries that could help promote Ashinaga in their respective countries and communities.
What is one of the most valuable lessons you learned from this internship, and why?
This internship taught me that it’s not always about fixing every problem, but rather adapting. Sometimes there were decisions made by staff that I disagreed with, but it was clear the decision was final. At first, I grew frustrated seeing all these changes being made that I felt were negatively impacting the students. However, I grew to understand that my opinions were often based on incomplete knowledge because I had been there for such a short period of time and the staff had a better knowledge of the organizational structure of Ashinaga. Second, I learned that complaining to the other interns wasn’t effective at all and certainly wasn’t helping the students adapt to the new changes. Instead, I tried to focus my energy on finding ways to maintain as effective and memorable an experience for the students as possible, despite the changes being made.
What is one of the biggest challenges you faced during this internship, and why? How did you overcome it?
One of the biggest challenges of the internship was trying to decide what level of math and physics to teach the students. Because the students come from all different countries and have varying levels of physics/math abilities, it can be hard to strike a balance in class between making material easy enough for the lower-level students, but not too easy for the higher-level students. In order to address this problem, I started assigning challenge problems every week in order to push the students at the top of the class, and to teach the students as a whole to not be afraid to attempt problems, as there was no punishment for getting them wrong. I also started setting up meetings with the lower-level students to give them additional practice in the areas where they struggled most.
What skills from your courses at SEAS helped you the most during this internship, and why?
I have taken several math and physics classes at Harvard, so in developing my curriculum and lesson plans I tried to take the demonstrations and activities I found most effective in those classes and apply them in my own teaching. It was also helpful because I could anticipate which topics they would struggle with, because my math/physics classmates and I also struggled with them.
Why has this internship been a good experience for you?
I have definitely developed a newfound respect for my professors. Developing lesson plans takes an incredible amount of time, and it can be frustrating when the class doesn’t go as planned. I can now appreciate how my professors are able to think on their feet and adapt to the topics the class is getting stuck on or the activities that just aren’t working.
How do you think this experience could inform or benefit your future career path?
This internship taught me to not be afraid to raise concerns to members of staff above me. Because the interns were the ones teaching the classes, we acted as the liaisons between the staff and students. When I noticed problems in how the day was structured, or common complaints aired by the students, I was responsible for bringing it up to the leadership. Moving forward, I think growing this ability to communicate effectively between groups of people will be very valuable. As I learned this summer, it is very difficult to address and solve problems without this communication between the layers of an organization.
