PhD chemist finds job satisfaction as high school teacher

Science : After several years of working in university labs, a PhD chemist switched to teaching science and math to secondary school students. Jeff Cruzan earned his doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and did his postdoc at Harvard Medical School. When he realized how much he enjoyed explaining things to people, however, he decided to change directions and pursue a career as a teacher. Cruzan got a job teaching science in a Massachusetts high school through a program that does not require a traditional teaching degree, which can take as long as two years of full-time study. Because of the current need for secondary school science and math teachers, a number of people in those fields have been pursuing that “alternative path” to a second, and rewarding, career in teaching, writes Beryl Lieff Benderly for Science.