The Journey Behind a Teacher: Mrs. Vielma

The+Journey+Behind+a+Teacher%3A+Mrs.+Vielma

Many of you may know Laura Vielma from her career as a math teacher at The Baldwin School of Puerto Rico, as coordinator of the National Honor Society (NHS), or maybe even from extracurricular activities. Laura Vielma, a beloved teacher, has had a long and complicated career, ranging from studying medicine to working as a mathematician in a factory. There is more than meets the eye when it comes to Laura Vielma. 

In her childhood, Mrs. Vielma had a very balanced high school career, lending from theater to track & field to the sciences. A big interest for Mrs. Vielma was swimming. She started swimming at about 3 years old, joining the National Federation at 6, and competing at international competitions at the age of 8. Personal reasons caused her to discontinue with her swimming, yet she went on to join new sports teams and other extracurricular activities. This included playing the piano and competing in track & field. Laura Vielma never grew up thinking that she would become a teacher. What she did know was that she enjoyed problem solving, the sciences, and mathematics. She believed she would take on a career with sciences, for example, engineering. When Mrs. Vielma was looking to join colleges, she wanted to 1) be close to her family and friends and 2) have options for activities besides studying, such as having access to a college sports center or a library. Mrs. Vielma believes it’s important to have a good amount of options, but not too many that one gets overwhelmed. 

Sitting down before you start applying to colleges to figure out what you want is important. During her first year of college studied medicine. When she wasn’t studying the discipline, she spent her time tutoring students in mathematics. At the end of her first year in med school, she realized she very much enjoyed teaching young children mathematics. Along with this came the realization that she did not only like math by itself and was interested in helping people; this was when her love for teaching appeared. Her Masters was applying mathematical models to industry. She worked three years in a company looking to solve problems in the production line by using mathematical models, and was included in projects where she had to sell the ideas to managers, look for potential clients, recruit people, and conduct interviews with Math and Engineering students. 

Throughout her college career, she kept the same balanced momentum with sports, music, and extracurricular activities. Finding a job after college was not difficult for Mrs. Vielma. She loved her work, and she was good at it. After college, her career list started growing from principal to Math teacher to working at a company using mathematical algorithms. 

Making decisions regarding the future can be difficult for everyone. Mrs. Vielma has a lot of experience with stepping out of a comfort zone, moving to a completely different place, and starting fresh. Her advice is to go for big opportunities and test the waters. If you are uncomfortable in the situation you are in, there is always a possibility to change it. 

Teaching isn’t an easy job: putting on a brave face, coming to class everyday, and being ready to motivate kids to learn and help them succeed can be difficult. Separating personal life from teaching can be complex. For anyone wanting to pursue teaching as their career, Mrs. Vielma suggests making sure that it is what you want to do, that you are confident in your decisions, and that you understand that you must put in a lot of hard work. But you get what you give. 

Mrs. Vielma has come a long way in finding herself in her career journey, ranging from swimming to medicine to now teaching Mathematics to students of all ages. In her journey, Mrs. Vielma learned a lot, not only about math, but of the world around her. In the future, Mrs. Vielma wants to continue exploring the IB system with more opportunities in teaching, seeing it with a different perspective. Along with this, she wants to increase knowledge in  mathematics and use it in different ways. “There is always more with math.”

 

 

References: 

Staff. Staff Directory | Baldwin School Of Puerto Rico. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.baldwin-school.org/apps/staff/ 

International mathematical olympiad. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.imo-official.org/country_team_r.aspx?code=VEN&column=males&order=desc