In her classroom, everyone that comes in can confidently say that her lessons are fun, interesting, and enjoyable. April’s staff of the month is dedicated to a committed teacher that has knowledge of biology and physics, Doctor Meghna Ostasiewski.
After graduating from Wake Forest for the first time with her undergraduate degree, she went to teach high school biology in Northern Virginia for three years. Once she came back to North Carolina she got her Master’s degree, then finished her PhD. Throughout her journey, she remembered her love for teaching, leading her to go back into the profession.
“I’m not really sure what made me go into teaching except my parents were in education and I loved helping people that were struggling academically,” Ostasiewski said.
Before she came to West, Ostasieski taught at Hanes Middle School for three years. She had always loved teaching due to her educator parents exposing her to the profession at a young age. This led her to loving school and always wanting to help others with their work, along with volunteering to be a tutor.
“I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor or anything else people told me I should be since they always said ‘oh you’re smart and you like biology you should do this or this’,” Ostasiewski said.
She sponsors “The Care for Kids” club and the new Environmental Club. The Environmental Club focuses on promoting recycling and changing old harmful habits to new ones that can positively impact the environment. But on the other hand, the beginning Care for Kids Club centered around helping with medically fragile kids and their caregivers. But every since 2020 there has been some trouble with getting students into the hospitals to take care of people. So the club switched to helping any kids, mostly in elementary school.
“We have done fall festivals in daycares, and elementary schools. We’ve done the bunny walk, as well as helped the Ronald Mcdonald house. We made cards and cooked for the families there. One time we got to cheer for the graduates for the special children’s school”. Ostasiewski said.
Her strong suit was always science and math, so once she got to Wake she did not hesitate to take the Biology major.
“When it came to biology and genetics it always came natural to me. Since I already got my biology major and I knew I wanted to teach, I went ahead and got my secondary education minor”. Ostasiewski said.
When she started teaching at West she taught Earth Science, Anatomy, and Chemistry. But finally switched to Biology. She was offered to teach Physics as well and she took that opportunity as fast as she could.
One of Ostasiewski’s goals when itching is to create a safe environment for her students to share more about themselves and their hobbies they are involved with. Including the arts 9band, chorus, orchestra, theater, dance, etc.) or sports.
“Because there are a lot of coaches and stuff, I hope when I ask students about their hobbies they appreciate that I know what they are talking about. Since I know people are centered around sports more than the arts here”. Ostasiewski said.
If you see her around campus, make sure to tell Dr. O how much you appreciate her and all the work she does for West.
