It was three days before Megan Brozik was set to leave to begin teaching at Dickinson
Middle School, and she was feeling listless. Megan graduated from Black Hills State
University (BHSU) that spring with a degree in Math and Science Education and was
now spending the summer in her hometown, Winner, South Dakota. Her flurry of extracurriculars
at BHSU and her time as a student-teacher at Spearfish Middle School and High School
conditioned her to flourish in active environments. But she said it also means, faced
with a prolonged period without new challenges to conquer, Megan couldn’t wait for
the summer to be over.
Megan was raised by two working-class parents in Winner, a town where “everyone has to do everything to make everything run,” she said. Neither of Megan’s parents had attended college, but she knew when she graduated from high school she wanted to continue her education. At BHSU, Megan found small-town warmth without the pressures of living in a small town. “There was something about campus,” Megan said. “I felt like they [BHSU faculty] cared about me and where I came from. They really wanted me to be the best person I could be.” Her tour of campus also included a tour of Spearfish, where she saw the relationship between the university and the town. “That’s what got me to see the community and see how they [Spearfish residents] loved their college students.”
Megan did well academically at BHSU, eventually landing on the Dean’s List. But she also worked as a peer mentor, a tutor at the Math Center, and a student-teacher--roles that taught her how to be a guide for students. But she says that it was Jacket Catholic, BHSU’s student organization for Catholics, that helped give her a broader perspective. “I had that place to go and people to ask the questions [that] coming from a small town, you’re not supposed to ask,” she said. “And so I think that grew me into a different person.”
Megan was a student-teacher for two teachers, Brady Sudbeck, a 7th grade math teacher at Spearfish Middle School, and Jessica Zwaschka, an 11th grade chemistry teacher at Spearfish High School. She said that the pairings, arranged through BHSU’s Field Experience Office, were positive experiences. Her first pairing was with Sudbeck. “I was pretty nervous, and it ended up being amazing,” she said. “I really enjoyed how he interacted with the students. He was just kind.” Sudbeck also gave her freedom to experiment with the different teaching methods she’d learned at BHSU and discover for herself which worked best. Though Megan says she needs structure—which is part of what made her summer in Winner so restless—she appreciated Sudbeck’s freewheeling style. It’s part of a “middle school attitude” that she hopes to replicate in her own classroom.
When asked why she was drawn to teach middle school, Megan said there were many reasons. Admiration of Sudbeck played a role. She also enjoyed the enthusiasm she saw in the middle school students she taught. But she says that, mostly, her motivation came from wanting to be the mentor that she never had during her own time in middle school. As Megan enters her own classroom, armed with a broad swath of teaching experience and a determination to lead, she’s poised to thrive in her new role.