Fifth grade teacher ‘allowed me to establish a life-long knack and passion for STEM’
Many young scientists thank elementary school teachers for instilling their interests in science and math. Jonas (“Gus”) Gustafson admires and respects Connie Studer, his fifth grade teacher, so much that she officiated at his wedding 22 years later.
“Mrs. Studer gave me the confidence to pursue math and science as a career,” said Gustafson, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of BBI’s Danny Miller, M.D., Ph.D. “She teaches to the strengths and abilities of each individual student, which allowed me to establish a life-long knack and passion for STEM.”
Studer, who has taught for 30 years in New Hampshire, notes that “some students just stand out.”
Gustafson was one of them.
“He was way beyond what the curriculum taught in mathematics, so I provided him ‘extra’ math,” she said. “It’s just so much fun when you have a student with the interest, drive, and grit to work hard independently. I think it was this mutual bond of questioning and looking beyond, that bonded us for so long.”
That bond, manifested by “interest, drive, and grit,” has served Gustafson well.
