Education

Headshot of Devon Smith
Headshot of Devon Smith

Devon Smith

About

Devon graduated from Ursinus in 2011 as a Classics major and with a student-initiated major in Linguistics. She earned an MPhil (Master of Philosophy) at Cambridge in 2012 and then came back to Ursinus as a post-baccalaureate student in the Latin teaching certification program. She did her student teaching at Great Valley Middle School and Great Valley High School, earning her certification in the spring of 2014.

In the fall of 2014, Devon began a full-time teaching position at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. The Bryn Mawr School is an all-girls private school, and while Devon had some regrets about not ending up in public education, she describes the school as an “absolutely terrific fit. The team is highly motivated, committed to interdisciplinary learning, very creative, and very, very involved in professional development.”

Impact of Ursinus

I definitely would not have been ready for this position without the program at Ursinus. The quality of instruction and the depth and thoughtfulness of the classes are really to credit for preparing me to work with a faculty of this caliber. They were very impressed by my familiarity with inquiry learning and the Understanding by Design approach to curriculum planning, and the fact that I had really taken the time to think about the why of teaching (and teaching Latin). Thank you so much for a certification program that not only gave me the information and training I needed, but also gave me deeply-felt beliefs about quality teaching. Ursinus is not a ‘ticking the box’ program and I have been impressed with and grateful for the quality of the Education Department from the start.

I am looking forward to challenging these young women to think deeply and broadly about the Classical World. Thank you all for your support along the way. I am so ecstatic.