I've wanted to be a teacher since the sixth grade. I chose math because it doesn't come naturally to me. The fact that I'm not incredible at math and have to work very hard to master it convinced me that I could be a great math teacher. I'll be able to relate to and support students who also find math challenging.

One of my favorite math education professors is Dr. Jeff Wanko. Last year, he and I traveled to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to present research on puzzles, logic, and deductive reasoning. This past fall, we co-taught an honors math seminar called Beyond Suduko, during which we encouraged students to explore and create puzzles to develop critical-thinking skills.

In addition to math and education, I'm also passionate about social justice. In my sophomore year, I took part in the annual School of the Americas (SOA) Watch protest at Fort Benning, Georgia—a grassroots movement to challenge aspects of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. After that, I really got fired up about working for political change through activism. In 2008, I organized a contingent of 27 Miami students to go to the SOA protest, and in 2009, more than 40 students went.

My two passions converged last spring when I mentioned to the director of Miami's Honors Program, Dr. Carolyn Haynes, that I wanted to make social activism a part of my profession, and she said, "I challenge you to make that happen." The result was I applied to conduct an independent research project through Miami's Undergraduate Summer Scholars program. Then I spent the summer creating a series of lesson plans that examined social justice issues.

One of the lessons investigates how the U.S. government calculates the poverty threshold. It's an antiquated system and through it mathematics students can identify various ways the system could be improved so tax dollars are not wasted and people who need help are getting it. My aim is to empower students to use the math we learn every day in school to understand the world around them.