My name is Katie Marakos and I am a junior at Moravian College.  I am majoring in General Science and Elementary Education.  I decided to come to Moravian College because they have an excellent science department, education program, and a great basketball team!

            I live in Linwood, New Jersey and attended Seaview Elementary School, Belhaven Middle School, and Holy Spirit High School.  I have a passion for sports, spending time with my family and friends, and my pets.  I have played basketball, soccer, and ran track up until my freshman year of college.  Since my freshman year at Moravian, I have been a member of the Women’s Basketball Team.  I am also the secretary of SAAC (Student Athletic Advisory Committee) and secretary of KDP (Kappa Delta Pi; the Education honor society).

            I have always wanted to be a teacher and have recently substituted at my elementary school.  My dream is to become a Special Education teacher.  I have had experience coaching students with disabilities throughout high school and college.  I have coached Hoops For All, which is a basketball league for students with disabilities and Field of Dreams, which is a baseball league for students with disabilities.

During summers, I also babysit for a few families in my area and work at CVS.  This spring and summer I will be working on a SOAR project where I will be studying the Anti-Herbivore Defense Against Leaf-Cutter Ants in the Tropical Tree Cecropia sciadophylla.  In the tropical forests of South America, leaf-cutter ants are important herbivores.  These ants harvest pieces of leaves from canopy trees and then transport them along foraging trails to their underground nests where they use them to grow a fungus.  They grow the fungus as a source of food.  I will study potential defenses to these ants in the Cecropia sciadophylla using a pick-up assay.  By completing this project and research, I plan to gain experiences that I can bring into my future classroom.  Many students will not receive the chance for this opportunity so I would like to use pictures and knowledge to help them experience what I have.

I am also currently in my third field experience as I continue to pursue my love for teaching.  I plan to continue the education program and graduate next year with a degree in General Science and a certificate in Elementary Education.  In the future I plan to bring my experiences from my research, volunteer projects, and clubs into my classroom to help broaden the horizons of my students!

 

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