SHELLEY DEFORD
Physics Teacher
Teacher preparation program:
University of California, Berkeley
Anticipated date of graduation: May 2010

A graduate of Harvey Mudd College with a degree in physics, Shelley DeFord had initially planned to pursue a PhD in the sciences. During a college summer internship Shelley designed curriculum and taught 7th grade biology to low-income students in Sacramento, California. The next year, she interned at the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, where she helped design and implement high school lessons in physics. Both experiences reinforced her appreciation of teaching as a superb intellectual challenge and set her on her course of becoming a physics teacher.

A 2004 National Merit Scholar and Harvey S. Mudd Scholar, Shelley was on her college’s Dean List for five semesters. She was a volunteer crisis counselor for Project Sister in Pomona, California. In the summer of 2008 Shelley traveled to Kenya to teach in an underdeveloped village school. Teaching runs in Shelley’s family: her cousin is a high school mathematics teacher, her grandfather taught chemistry and her aunt teaches music. In addition to teaching, Shelley is passionate about music and was trained as a classical pianist.