Concordia has a smaller enrollment than my high school, but somehow it feels bigger.
Katelyn Ryman was not expecting to go to a college like Concordia. “I had gone to pretty large public schools and all of the tours I had been on so far had been to pretty large colleges. My mom suggested that I visit at least one small college, and it was Concordia. I didn’t realize I would fall in love by just walking on campus. The atmosphere was just amazing, and I knew they had a great education program.”
Katelyn has wanted to be in education for a long time. “I was in an education training program in high school. I love high schoolers as an age group.” Katelyn further hopes to better high schoolers by teaching them about math. “It’s a pretty commonly held belief that math is not very cool, but I love learning the ins and outs of it and teaching people why it is important. I want to share this love with other people.”
Katelyn believes that she can share this love by creating an atmosphere conducive to learning, which she’s learned to do in her classes. “Our education classes teach us to have our own philosophies and structure for our classroom.” The education program is not always easy, but Katelyn has a great support system to help her get through it. “The classes are fairly small, which allows people to get pretty close with each other and all of the professors.”
Katelyn wants to foster this closeness in her career as a teacher. “I student teach this spring at a public school. I came from public schools and I want to give back to them. It’s very important to have Christian teachers in public school environments. Even though you can’t explicitly tell the students that you’re a Christian, you can show them through your actions. That example is pretty much the most important thing I can offer to my students.”