March 2011 COSAM E-Newsletter
COSAM Student Profile: Ashlee Evonc, Freshman and New Poly Rep
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Ashlee Evonc is freshman Liberal Studies major who can’t wait to tell other students about Cal Poly and the College of Science and Mathematics.
Evonc says she’s known since pre-school that she wanted to be a teacher. Her mother is an elementary school teacher and her father is in real estate. In Evonc’s first few months at Cal Poly, she has taken Liberal Studies courses showing her how to use performing arts to teach science and history to elementary students. She’s also taken a field experience class that sent her to learn and assist in a fourth-grade classroom at a Spanish-English “dual immersion” school in San Luis Obispo.
A veteran of AP calculus in high school, Evonc is glad Cal Poly’s undergraduate degree program for future teachers – Liberal Studies – is a part of the College of Science and Mathematics.
“When I tell people I want to be a teacher and my major is Liberal Studies but I’m in the College of Science and Mathematics they look at me funny sometimes. But I think it’s cool that in our program we have a lot more science and math courses. I really like it. I’m taking statistics next quarter and I’m really looking forward to it.”
So far at Cal Poly, Evonc has taken 18 units a quarter and volunteered with San Luis Obispo’s community theater company. She’s active in her Trinity Hall residence council. And she just found one more Cal Poly opportunity she couldn’t pass up: volunteering with Poly Reps.
The Poly Reps students work with the Cal Poly Alumni Relations and the Admissions Offices to serve as ambassadors for the entire university. They give guided tours of campus to high school students and their families, and represent the university at special events throughout the year. Alumni, parents and friends on campus in April may wind up in a tour led by Evonc.
On her tours, she wants to convey what she’s found at the university in her freshman year. “Everyone here has been so welcoming and so open and friendly. I want to tell future students to come and take a tour and see if Cal Poly is right for you. It’s an awesome school. I’d definitely recommend it,” she said. “I absolutely loved Cal Poly from the first time I came here,” she said. “We were on a tour with a PolyRep and I turned to my friend and said ‘I want to do that.’ I want to be one of the students who get people excited about Cal Poly. ”
While the future definitely holds a statistics class and more Poly Rep tours, Evonc is also anxious to graduate and bring the university’s Learn by Doing education style to an elementary school classroom.
She’d like to teach in her hometown. But she’d also like to spend some time teaching in an inner-city classroom. “I think teachers can have a really huge impact on the classroom in an inner city, where they might not have the resources or teachers who want to teach there,” she said. “I’d love to bring my energy to a disadvantaged school.”