ABIGAIL DAANE
Hometown: Sherwood, OR
Field: Astrophysics
Teacher preparation program:
Chapman University College
Anticipated date of graduation: 2010

Growing up with a mother who is a professor, Abigail Daane has been teaching since high school. Yet she hadn’t always planned on pursuing a teaching career. As a graduate student at Clemson University, her primary focus was research with the goal of obtaining a PhD in physics. While working towards her master’s degree Abigail taught labs in astronomy and realized that she loved to teach.

Abigail is teaching physics at De La Salle High School in Concord, CA while completing her teaching credential. She is passionate about encouraging students to develop a love of learning that will carry on throughout their lives and she is an advocate for education equality — especially when it comes to women and minorities. “My experiences in high school, undergraduate and graduate programs have shown that women and minorities are severely underrepresented in physics. The leaky pipeline is still in effect. As one looks higher up the education ladder, the number of women and minorities keeps falling. I am striving to change this, one student at a time.”

Abigail graduated from Clemson University with an MS in physics. She is a 2004 recipient of the Ruske Award for Outstanding Physics Student and received the Curry Fellowship in support of her graduate work. In addition to science, she also enjoys various forms of dance including ballet, jazz, hip hop and breakdancing.