Lion VoicesOctober 30, 2021
Lion Voices: Dr. Jordan Mader
In celebration of the first Friday of Pride month, our feature is Jordan Mader, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 and an advisor
for Pride Club and Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students (MAPS).
Jordan earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and began
her work at 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 two years ago, choosing the campus because she wanted a place where
she could envision herself for a number of years - the faculty, staff, and students
at 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 felt like home.
It鈥檚 obvious in talking to her (or visiting her office) that Jordan is passionate
about chemistry, but she is also very passionate about her students. 鈥淚 like helping
students realize that their professor can be approachable and cares about their success,
and isn鈥檛 just scary or focused on getting through the material. Organic chemistry
has such a bad reputation, so I work really hard to make it a more positive than expected
experience. I tell bad jokes/puns, use real-life analogies, add a project application
of organic chemistry to everyday life each semester, try new/different teaching methods
based on student feedback, make students coffee, keep tissues in my office, hold student鈥檚
babies if need be, make appointments at all hours to help my students, come early,
stay late, whatever I can to help my students throughout the semester. It鈥檚 incredibly
important to me that students know they can reach out for help, usually with chemistry
but with life as well.鈥
During her years as an undergraduate, Jordan realized that not everything came as
easily to her as it did in high school so she had to learn how to study and manage
her time to do better in her classes. 鈥淭hose skills have been incredibly helpful throughout
graduate school and in the last 11 years of teaching college. I am often teaching
multiple courses with different subjects and requirements in addition to doing committee/service
work and supervising research students, so having time management and organization
skills has been essential to keeping my head above water.鈥
Though she loves her work as a scientist, the thing she enjoys most is getting to
know and interact with her students. 鈥淚t gets kind of boring just talking to myself
the whole lecture, so I like an interactive class where students can share their thoughts,
feelings, and understanding of the world with other people.鈥
Some advice that Jordan would like to pass on to everyone is, 鈥淎s soon as you get
lost, get found! Whether that means going to a peer tutor, starting or finding a study
group, going to a professor鈥檚 office hours, meeting up with your lab group mates,
etc. Be proactive about finding a way to make the material approachable. Go to your
professor鈥檚 office hours that they have set aside specifically for helping students
even if you don鈥檛 have questions; if you are going to ask for a letter of recommendation,
the better we know you, the better the letter we write is!鈥
To join Pride Club or any of the campus RSOs, visit NumaLink!
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