Coming Full Circle: ’21 Alum Returns to Explore Math Education Career
Upon returning to Friends Academy this past spring, Josh Surprenant ’21 was pleased to find that campus still felt “like how I remembered it.”
Surprenant visited FA in May for his senior project at Providence Country Day School, where graduating students take on brief internship-style positions to get a better sense of their career field of interest. Surprenant wanted to explore his aspiration of becoming a math educator.
Although he had tutored students one on one before, Josh wanted to know how it felt “to actually be in a classroom” before heading off to Oberlin College in Ohio – a school he chose in part because, he said, of its “similar vibe as Friends: friendly community, passionate professors… people who are invested and care.”
Working with math coordinator David Lobato, Surprenant arranged a schedule to shadow him and other faculty as they led math lessons. Of Mr. Lobato, his math teacher in Middle School, Surprenant recalled, “he has a way of explaining things that I now really appreciate.”
Surprenant appreciated the opportunity to work closely with students at various grade levels to help them solve problems. Near the end of his three-week project term, Surprenant was invited up to the front of the classroom to lead a few math lessons himself (pictured).
Looking back on his time at Friends Academy with four years of high school behind him, Surprenant remarked, “It’s hard to get students to truly care when it comes to liking school, being excited, and being friendly to people. I felt FA actually did that.”