Throughout my Kenan Fellow experience, I experience impacts in multiple aspects professionally. I was initially under the impression that this would strictly be a professional development where Kenan Fellows provides equipment and I come up with a project. Instead, this professional develop not only provided the opportunity to job shadow professionals in various engineering fields, but to also work with the equipment they work with, develop an industry-related project, learn about and interact with current political issues related to education at both the state and national level.

The impacts have affected topics that I bring into the classroom pertaining to the associated curriculum. Examples include the incorporation of Arduino Kits, C+/C++ programming language, Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks in addition to the application of problem solving, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills with this industry-related equipment. The impacts of the Kenan Fellows Program has also affected the way I go about thinking about the education field. I am more aware of the “behind-the-scenes” setting of education that includes politics and industry outreach.

Impacts from the Kenan Fellows Program have been huge for me and has definitely been the most thorough and rewarding professional development program. I highly recommend to any other educator out there interested in furthering themselves professionally.