Stemming from a childhood spent amongst coconuts and sea life custom to the tropical climate of India, Ms. Reema Fernandes recalls her journey since then as she teaches advanced and IB Chemistry. Ms. Fernandes runs her classroom environment on the principle that everyone has the potential of reaching great heights, no matter how confusing the subject might be.

With a habit of greeting incoming students with a welcoming smile, Ms. Fernandes has crafted an environment complete with inspiring posters and LED lights around the whiteboard. Ms. Fernandes aims to ensure everyone enjoys frequent brain breaks at the end of each unit, and when needed, she answers arising questions with encouragement, always happy to help.

With a master’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from Vellore Institute of Technology University in Vellore, India, Ms. Fernandes has been teaching microbiology, organic and medicinal chemistry, and biochemistry since 2018, spending two years in India and three years after moving to the United States. Using her knowledge from when she studied for her bachelor’s degree, Ms. Fernandes does everything to empower students to prepare for future colleges and further their own career paths.

“When I was choosing different options for a career, I remembered that I had a teacher in my life who really made a difference,” Ms. Fernandes said. “They made chemistry enjoyable, really went out of the way to bring in the real life applications, showing those videos, [and] put [in] extra effort [and] extra time to come down to my learning style and make chemistry understandable to me. That was how I really began liking this profession, and that was how I decided that I wanted to be a teacher.”

“Many people feel that chemistry is very difficult and very abstract. I want to make it tangible and understandable to them,” Ms. Fernandes said. “We have different learning preferences, but we all come together as a whole.”

In her free time, Ms. Fernandes devotes time to her hobbies, which include playing the violin, which she learned to play from an early age, and expanding her stamp collection. Growing up in a tropical climate, she always adored nature, sea, and the outdoors.

“If it’s vacation time, you’ll probably find me in any place green or by the seaside,” Ms. Fernandes said. “I think that’s my ideal vacation.”

Understanding how overwhelming the subject may seem, Ms. Fernandes incorporates both chemistry content and experience, so the learning process will be enjoyable for students.

“I chose to teach high school because I think this is the age group that I love interacting with, [and this] is what I love the most,” Ms. Fernandes said. “Especially when a child is able to understand something that they have not been able to understand, like when they have those ‘aha’ moments, is something that really makes my time and effort worthwhile.”

Having found a passion for chemistry through the abstract thinking of the subject, she loves the way it has actual laboratory and real-world applications. Ms. Fernandes finds beauty in seeing what we do and learn.

“I feel that teaching is really a noble profession, because we have young minds that are in our hands that we shape, and I feel all the time, all the effort and everything that we do goes into shaping young minds and shaping their future,” Ms. Fernandes said. “Making them strong and resilient into going out into the world so that when they have their dream job, when they have the life of their dreams, they look back on their teachers and they think of us with a smile, that is what I try to do every day.”