Megan Faurot proves the old saying, “Once a teacher, always a teacher.”

After teaching science for six years at the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School in Bronzeville, Faurot became the director of education programs at the Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern University last year. She develops science-based educational programs for the Chicago area, such as the Cardiology Summer Academy.

Faurot encourages science immersion, working with scientists and clinicians to develop programs. She also works with high school girls to find out what they need from these programs and to encourage more girls to pursue a career in the sciences. Her current projects include the cardiology academy, a one-week summer program for girls to learn about scientific concepts in cardiology by participating in hands-on experiments and clinical investigations.

Becoming an educational program developer required Faurot to welcome transition and challenges while keeping in touch with her classroom roots—good advice for anyone starting on a new career path.

What do you miss about teaching?
I miss the daily interactions with the girls and building the relationships that result from those daily interactions. Working in a classroom, you deal with a number of different personalities and interests and dynamics, but now I’ve been able to take that experience and bring it into a new profession. The best part of my new job is learning and creating educational programs for those girls. I learn from scientists and clinicians that are currently in the field and making new discoveries every day, and I get to use my love for science and my understanding of it to create those programs.

What have you taken from your teaching experience to your new job?
I think that one thing I bring to my new position here is that I really understand the life of a teacher, someone who’s in a classroom day in and day out, and realizing that I can help in some way to develop a program that really supports not only the students, but the high school teachers as well. I feel like, to get to the students, you need to get to the teachers because the teachers are the ones who are going to be inspiring the girls. We need to think about how we can develop them professionally while they remain in the classroom. One thing I’m working on at the moment is adding summer internships for teachers to work in a laboratory with someone like Dr. Teresa Woodruff (Director of the Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern University).

Can you think of a particularly rewarding experience in your new job?
There’s a graduation ceremony at the end of the Oncofertility Saturday Academy, and it is a really nice evening to have all the students come with their parents and family members to celebrate their new knowledge and to share that knowledge with people they care about. Being able to create that space and opportunity for people to stop and reflect on all the hard work that they’ve done is a great feeling.

(The Oncofertility Saturday Academy is a two-year Saturday science program where Young Women’s students  learn about the reproductive cycle by conducting their own experiments in a research lab and meeting medical professionals.)

Why is it so important for you to work with girls in high school?
It’s at a pretty critical time of their life where there soon going to be making the decision to go to college and they’re really trying to explore what their next step will be. It’s a time where you can really influence them by providing them with experiences to project them onto a path that will lead to success. I cannot wait until 10 years from now to see if any of the girls participating in these programs right now will be future women scientists or clinicians or engineers. I’m just waiting and it’s hard to be patient. I want to know now!

What are some of the biggest challenges of your job?
It is challenging to stay connected to the girls. But what I’m trying to do now is to identify and really work with the current teachers who are at Young Women’s to disseminate the info about the program to spark the girls interest, so I especially have to work on communicating with teachers and administration at the high school to continue the momentum of this program. It’s just a shift in where my role is because I’m now trying to give that responsibility to the teachers at Young Women’s.

What is your reaction to people who say that a teacher’s career can only advance outside of the classroom?
In some ways, I’m trying to look at a way that can be positive. I’m no longer in the classroom, and the girls miss me there, but I think something I could add to it by not being in the classroom is somehow developing programs to support the science teachers who do remain. There is somewhat of a stigma of being a high school teacher and some people think that the only way to advance our careers is to get out of the classroom, but I’ve always been proud of that field and I think that more people need to recognize it. Teachers are like the gatekeepers to turning on a light bulb for the students, which will let them think, “Oh, I can be a scientist,” and it can happen in those daily interactions.