PATRICK RYAN

Coming from a family of educators, I have known from a young age that I wanted to become a teacher. However, as my career has taken off over the past seven years, I have recognized that I want to be more than simply a teacher for my students. Instead, I want to be someone that inspires in them a curiosity for the world around them, as well as a source of inspiration and self-fulfillment. To that end, I have always taken on positions that have been the most challenging. I spent my first five years teaching in a Title I school in Newark, New Jersey. The school often lacked the most basic of resources but the challenges and successes along the way made it one of the most rewarding careers imaginable. The following two years, I continued to teach special needs in a similarly challenging environment. Additionally, I have spent short periods of time volunteering in schools in Peru and Nicaragua. These experiences have helped me to develop my skills as a highly effective teacher while also reinforcing in me the belief that education is not just simply teaching reading and maths but a means by which children discover and make sense of the world around them. As someone that has always been curious about the world, I am now studying to obtain a Master's degree at Queen's University in Belfast. After graduation, I intend to stay in Northern Ireland long term as I have fallen in love with the country and its culture and people. My time at Queen's has exposed me to the Northern Ireland curriculum and I believe that my experience with the American curriculum also adds value to my role as an educator in this country.