Meet Our Students

Elliot Brinker, '18

Major: Spanish and French

Hometown: Livonia, Michigan

What makes you want to be a teacher or educator?

I wanted to be a teacher only after I realized what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be as a person. In high school, I found that I have an interest in languages and cultures, and a passion for understanding more of the world. Ever since I was young I’ve had a love for helping others. Despite the technology and advances that have been made in our time I feel that too many people grow up only understanding the bubble that they live in. It is my desire to help open people’s eyes, and allow them to connect with more of humanity that drives me towards education.

What do you love about being in Albion's Shurmur Center?

The two things that I love most about the Shurmur Center are the support that it provides and shared passion of the entire center and education department. You are supported on every level and through every step of the process towards becoming an educator. The staff and faculty foster close connections with the students and professionals in field and in the classroom. It is always easy to tell that the driving force behind these connections is the passion of those involved in the Center.

This passion extends beyond the Albion College students that they teach and is rooted in a concern for the students that will be taught by the graduates of the Shurmur Center. While every Shurmur Center student is supported and encouraged, we are taught to reflect on our own interests and goals to assure that we are the most effective in our future jobs as educators.

How do you think this experience will help you in your career goals?

The Shurmur Center and the education department really prepare you to excel as an educator in the future. The program includes large amounts of field experience, starting with the very first course, which really prepare you to be in the classroom. For many people, it helps them decide what kind of field they want to go into. This reflects the Center’s desire to help the students of future graduates before anything else. On a more personal basis, the program very closely reflects my own personal career goals, not only in becoming a teacher, but by helping me become the kind of teacher I want to be. Albion’s teacher education program focuses on a holistic teaching approach that I feel will best assist my future students in their own goals and educations.

What do you love about Albion College?

So much of what I learn and what I do at Albion reflects my life and my future life. Almost all of my experiences at Albion College have not only educated me as a student, but also as a person. At Albion, I don’t feel any disconnect between my school experiences and the world around me. It is not that every fact I learn is specifically relevant to my own life, but every professor, student, or person I meet here helps me understand how everything is a lesson and how those lessons can help me shape my future.

Kallyn Hieftje-Conley, '16

Major: Psychology, with concentration in Secondary Education; minor in English

Hometown: Originally Grosse Pointe Park, MI. But as of this summer when my parents’ house sold, I now live in Hilton Head island, SC

What makes you want to be a teacher or educator?

I want to be an influence in a student’s life. I didn’t have many teachers in school that I really connected with, only a couple, but those are the teachers that I remember and I will remember for life I believe. So I want to be that teacher and that impact in someone’s life.

What do you love about being in Albion's Shurmur Center?

I love the immediate hands-on experience we receive in the classes. In the first education class you take at Albion, you are already in a classroom observing a teacher and learning about the teaching career. Also, the professors and staff in the education department are all really amazing, and truly want the students in the program to succeed as teachers.

How do you think this experience will help you in your career goals?

It will help me tremendously! The experiences I’ve had have really helped me become the kind of teacher I want to be. The people I’ve worked with at the college, and at cooperating schools in the community, have really shown me what it means to be an effective teacher, and really be the best educator I can be.

What do you love about Albion College?

I love the community we have here on campus. When looking at colleges, I knew I wanted a small school. When I walked onto Albion’s campus, I just knew. I knew that this is the place I wanted to start my path. There are always people who are willing to help and support you in whatever you want to do. That’s just want Albion does. It’s like a family!

Kailey Henderson, '18

Major: Spanish, with concentration in Secondary Education; minor in English

Hometown: Glen Ellyn, Illinois

What makes you want to be a teacher or educator?

Ever since I was old enough to babysit, I wanted to be a teacher because I loved working with kids. Now, it comes from the desire to share my passion for learning and to inspire youth to achieve academic excellence, and reach their full potential.

What do you love about being in Albion's Shurmur Center?

Having just been accepted into the Teacher Education Program (TEP), I am excited to learn more about what that entails. So far, I love the opportunities the Shurmur Center has brought me, such as my recent trip to Costa Rica, and the field experience I have been able to gain in the classroom.

How do you think this experience will help you in your career goals?

I aspire to be a teacher, so the Center’s many opportunities will help me gain the experience necessary to find a teaching job, and the preparation necessary to start teaching.

What do you love about Albion College?

I love the opportunities for campus involvement and leadership, I love the close relationships I am able to form with my professors, I love the fact that I am always able to recognize a friendly face on campus no matter where I go, and I love the school spirit.