LINDSAY McDOWELL
Hometown: Buffalo, New York
Field: Mathematics
Teacher preparation program:
  Stanford University
Anticipated date of graduation:
  Summer 2013

Lindsay McDowell’s goal as a math teacher is to show students that “math isn’t something to memorize but instead something to learn.”  As a tutor, she worked with a number of students who disliked math.  Her best moments came when these students began to express enthusiasm for the subject.  Lindsay knew that this was something she wanted to continue doing, one student at a time.

Lindsay earned a BS in mathematics from the University of Texas, Austin where she had three internship experiences in the actuarial field.  Her actuary internships ran concurrent with her tutoring sessions.  While all three were interesting, “the actuarial work lacked the personal satisfaction that accompanied assisting students in learning.”

Lindsay attended college on two actuarial scholarships and is the recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship.  She would like to teach in an urban high-needs school where “negative attitudes and experiences towards math exist the most” and where she can have the most impact.

Lindsay hopes “for teachers to become a movement of positive change in the educational society as defenders of both their students and their students' educations.”  She looks forward to gaining a supportive community from her KSTF Fellowship experience.