Sara Bycura

What year did you graduate from SRU and what was your major?
I graduated in May 2015 with a dual major in Early Childhood & Special Education.

What jobs have you landed?
I am currently teaching K3 (Kindergarten) at The American School Foundation in Mexico City, Mexico!

How did you prepare for the interview for the job you landed?
I was fortunate enough to be student teaching at ASF at the time of my interview. I also visited The American School Foundation Website to get background information as well as reviewed typical interview questions.

What have you done well at that job?
Something I have done well is classroom management. I learned a lot about great classroom management- like classroom callbacks and filling our buckets- at SRU which has really helped my first year! I also feel that I am working well teaching in a variety of ways. I have a teaching assistant in my classroom, and we do a lot of co-teaching together in different settings, such as centers.

What types of recognition, awards, honors or even activities have you been involved in?
I have only been at the school for a month so I have not received any awards or recognition just yet.

What SRU experience or faculty influenced you and in what way?
There are two faculty who influenced me the most: Michelle Amodei and Robert Snyder. I met Dr. Amodei my sophomore year and she started out as the advisor to S-PSEA, the club I was the president of. Through S-PSEA and multiple classes, I was fortunate enough to get to know Dr. Amodei extremely well. I eventually went on the Spring Break Trip to Italy with her my junior year. While in Italy, we visited the International School of Florence, which is what started my interest for international teaching. From that moment she supported my dream and was constantly supporting me and giving me advice whenever I needed it.
I met Dr. Snyder when I was a junior and he was my student teaching supervisor and was the Supervisor for the Student Teaching in Mexico. When he learned that I was interested in the job at ASF, he did everything he could to help me prepare and encouraged me to take this opportunity. Both Dr. Amodei and Dr. Snyder are positive, inspiring people and I truly believe that is why they had such an impact on me while I was at Slippery Rock.

What else can you tell us about your success story that SRU students could learn from?
The biggest advice I can give is to take advantage of the traveling and trips SRU offers, I took my first international trip my sophomore year, and honestly I wish I had done it my freshman year! Once I took my first trip, I made sure to take a new one each year! You learn so much about the world and education that you cannot learn on SRU's campus. It is also half the cost when traveling with Slippery Rock, and not many other Universities offer these opportunities. It opens so many doors and opportunities; had I not learned about the international trips, I would have never learned about international teaching and in turn would never have landed this job!