When I am not caught up in reminiscing about my good times at Denison, I am studying in the mathematical sciences graduate program at Clemson University. Here, I take courses and teach calculus labs through a teaching assistantship which provides a stipend to cover tuition and the exotic life I lead here in Clemson, SC (or at least it funds a coffee addiction and the occasional night out). I am thankful for the tutoring experience I received at Denison; it certainly made the transition to teaching easy here at Clemson. Next semester I will teach my own Calculus class.

The math sciences program here is one that stresses breadth, requiring students to take courses in several different areas of mathematics. I am thankful for the exposure I received at Denison to analysis and algebra, and am also grateful for those special topics courses (like operations research and combinatorics). Just this morning I dusted off my OR notebook to "refresh" my memory on some of the things I learned in the course that I took junior year.

At this point, I am still undecided about what I want to do with my future, whether I will head for academia or industry. I do feel that my Denison experience prepared me well to be in this position of uncertainty... I am geared with too many options right now rather than not enough. Denison can open so many doors (through research experiences, supportive professors with lots of advice to offer, and tutoring experiences to name a few) and I am grateful for all of these. I like to use the analogy of a sponge to describe the Denison experience; for each and every student, there is so much there to soak up. I left after four years completely drenched. What the Denison math department cultivates beyond the classroom is what makes it a unique place a step above the rest.