SCC Instructor Goes from the Peace Corps to the Chemistry Classroom

Published: 06/22/2021

After she completed her undergraduate degree, Sophia Koziatek joined the Peace Corps as an education volunteer.

“I served in Ghana for two years where I taught chemistry in a small town outside of Kumasi,” Koziatek explained.

It was an experience that changed her life and her approach to teaching.

“It definitely opened my eyes to the importance of presenting information in more than one way so different students can understand a concept.”

When she returned to America, she brought the lessons she had learned in the Peace Corps to the community college classroom. 

“It is not always about getting to the right answer the first time,” she said, “but instead helping students have an internal roadmap of how to approach a problem.”

Koziatek started as an adjunct at St. Charles Community College in 2015 – soon becoming a full-time faculty member.

“I like using humor and sarcasm when I teach as an attempt to lower student anxiety about the class,” she said. “Chemistry is perceived as a very difficult subject because of the variety of topics taught in the course and the heavy use of math.”

The key, Koziatek says, is to try to show students the connections between chemistry they learn in class and the chemistry they experience in their lives.

“Chemistry really is amazing in how it is a part of everything,” she added. “You can find it in combustion reactions and car engines. You can see it happening on the Statue of Liberty. It turned green through a redox process.”

Though her passion for chemistry is apparent now, it wasn’t always that way.

“When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer,” Koziatek said. “I wanted to write children’s books and short stories.”

Something was standing in her way to achieving that dream – she was too nervous to have other people read and judge her writing. So, she chose to pursue chemistry instead.

“The funny part is that as a scientist and a teacher, people are constantly reading and judging my work. So, the joke is on me I guess,” she said.