Brianna Guidos is a junior education major and president of the Future Educators of Drexel.
The Triangle: What is the Future Educators of Drexel?
Brianna Guidos: The Future Educators of Drexel is the education majors club here on campus. We focus on helping the students within the education major to improve themselves academically, professionally and socially while here at Drexel and after college. We hold meetings once a week, host networking and professional development events, and provide students with an open forum for any education-related questions that they might have.
TT: How did you first become involved with FEDs?
BG: I started to attend meetings my freshman year here at Drexel after receiving emails about the meetings, and I was one of the only freshmen that attended every single meeting the club held. I began to shadow the president and help plan and pitch ideas for the club. I eventually was inducted onto the board as president at the beginning of my sophomore year and have been president ever since.
TT: What made you want to be president of FEDs?
BG: I wanted there to be more networking and professional development opportunities for education majors, and what better way to make this happen than to take action and create them yourself? I also wanted to create a place or forum where education students could ask questions about the major, where they could ask for advice on what classes to take, where to observe for classes, or anything else that pertains to education that they needed help with. Because we are such a small major at Drexel, we have the unique opportunity of being able to know everyone and network, which can be used to our advantage. FEDs is a place where we can support one another in our endeavors to be educators.
TT: What are your duties as president?
BG: As president, my main duty is to oversee the club and make the important decisions. I believe that everyone on the board is equal; we just have different tasks that we take care of. I personally schedule meetings, book venues, schedule speakers to come in and oversee what everyone else does on the board, including keeping up with our online websites, recruiting new members, etc.
TT: Are there any current goals or projects you are working on in FEDs?
BG: As of right now, we are working on starting up a movie series on education that will begin next week. We want to begin a critical conversation that we are hoping never ends between our students and members. We want to inform our members on the history and hardships that teachers have, but also how rewarding it can be. We are also working on a couple of networking events, such as our Smart Board workshop with our own community representative. We also are looking to start an annual event at the end of each spring term where we will hold a huge networking event for our education students and faculty. We are hoping that our members can make some connections that will help them after graduation. We have also been big advocates of tutoring in the schools surrounding Drexel and are starting to get more involved with these programs.
TT: What are the most challenging components of FEDs?
BG: The most challenging components of FEDs [are] recruiting members and organizing events. It is difficult to schedule meetings and events when our members are so busy with their schoolwork or when they have classes. We are hoping to get our club’s numbers up during the winter term. We have been successful in registering the club this year, and we are hoping that our end-of-the-year event will bring more members in. Organizing events can often be difficult as well with the planning and schedule of speakers.
TT: What do you hope FEDs will accomplish?
BG: We hope that FEDs will help its members develop professional development skills that they can use in their professional careers. We want to help to make connections that our members can utilize to help them get a job right after college. It is also important for us to help the surrounding community of Drexel, as in creating tutoring programs in our neighboring schools.
TT: Are you involved with anything else on campus?
BG: I currently have three jobs — at Kiwi Frozen Yogurt, Vegetate and The Math Forum @ Drexel. I have also started a tutoring program at Chester A. Arthur [Elementary School] through FEDs that I help run and participate in. I really enjoy all of the jobs and activities that I participate in, especially FEDs.
TT: What’s your story? How did you end up at Drexel?
BG: My application process to Drexel was different than most. I had been in the recruitment process for college for softball since I was a freshman in high school, so I had started very early on deciding where I wanted to go. The way it works for athletes, or at least in my situation, was that the college would let me know if they were interested in having me play for their team. They would offer me scholarship money, and then I would apply to the one college that recruited me for my sport. Drexel was the only school that I applied to because I already knew that I was going to play softball here.
TT: What’s your favorite thing to do in Philadelphia?
BG: I grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, so I grew up pretty much in the city. I absolutely love going to Phillies and Eagles games, and we also go into the city every weekend to go to special events, jazz cafes, out to dinner, operas or just to shop. I really enjoy being close to the city. I can’t imagine going to school anywhere else.
Triangle Talks is a weekly column that highlights members of the Drexel community.