{"id":49,"date":"2020-04-28T19:49:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T19:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/?p=9"},"modified":"2020-05-07T18:06:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T18:06:53","slug":"powered-by-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/powered-by-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"Powered by STEAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a first-year at Harvey Mudd, Hanna <\/strong>Ma \u201994 sometimes defined herself by what she wasn\u2019t, in addition to what she was. She excelled at math and science and thought she might become a chemist. But as an immigrant who had come to the United States in third grade and worked hard to learn English, she also thought of herself as \u201ca non-writer\u201d and wasn\u2019t contemplating a career outside of the sciences.<\/p>\n

Then she took literature classes at Harvey Mudd and dance classes at Scripps College, and \u201cI just fell in love with it all,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI redefined myself as a learner at Harvey Mudd, with the top-level teachers there. They can make a huge impact in how you see yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Ma is the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) coordinator for Contra Costa County in Northern California. She provides support for science and the arts in 18 school districts, where she encourages students to see their own possibilities.<\/p>\n

\n

We work with students who sometimes face a lot of challenges, and the arts and sciences help students make a connection and have hope. They learn who they are, what they\u2019re good at, what sparks them and not just what they\u2019ve experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Hanna Ma \u201994<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFor a long time I\u2019ve wanted to help students redefine themselves, or see themselves with a strengths-based approach rather than a deficit-based approach,\u201d says Ma. \u201cWe work with students who sometimes face a lot of challenges, and the arts and sciences help students make a connection and have hope. They learn who they are, what they\u2019re good at, what sparks them and not just what they\u2019ve experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ma works with educators across the Contra Costa districts\u2014some with as many as 30,000 students and others with several thousand\u2014to share STEAM resources and learning strategies. She also works directly with students and teachers in the district\u2019s court and community schools for students in alternative programs or the juvenile hall system.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust today, I went to one of the alternative schools,\u201d she says, \u201cand I asked the students, \u2019Are you guys interested in music? Are you interested in computer design?\u2019 and a lot of hands went up. I can tell them that there\u2019s a career for them, and that our job is to help them understand how they can get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Ma switched from chemistry to engineering at Harvey Mudd after an introduction to engineering class where she and her fellow students designed and constructed an all-weather mobile Red Cross tent. \u201cAfter that, I realized that I wanted the science to be applicable, and I was really drawn to doing something tangible and addressing a problem that helped someone,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Ma became involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on campus, \u201cand it challenged my thinking about what my values and what my goals are in life,\u201d she says. \u201cIt became very clear to me that it wasn\u2019t just about me anymore, and who I was in my faith, but also as one who serves others.\u201d<\/p>\n

She joined others from InterVarsity in seeking out opportunities to serve the community after graduation from Harvey Mudd and became an elementary school teacher through a Teach for Pomona program. She worked in schools that served mostly low-income and immigrant students. After taking some acting classes on her own, Ma developed a new drama program and traveled between elementary schools teaching students about the performing arts, improvisation and writing and performing scripts.<\/p>\n

After 10 years in the classroom and a move to the Bay Area, Ma decided to move into school administration. \u201cI was looking for a different challenge, and also I had seen some models of school site leadership that were negative, and I thought I would like to change that,\u201d she says. She received her master\u2019s degree in education and her administration credential through the University of California, Berkeley Principal Leadership Institute and worked as an administrator in the Mt. Diablo and San Ramon Valley Unified school districts.<\/p>\n

Her time as a teacher has helped her be a better administrator, Ma says. \u201cAll school leaders, whether at a school site or district level or county level, need to be as close to the students as possible, to know what they need and how their needs can be met\u2014 their academic and social-emotional needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ma says she still relies on one of the key lessons that she took away from her time at Harvey Mudd\u2014the idea of \u201ca shared struggle.\u201d The academic challenge of Harvey Mudd can surprise students arriving on campus, many of whom were highly successful in high school, she says. \u201cGetting to Mudd, there\u2019s a big challenge in humility, and you kind of have to get over yourself and ask each other for help,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThe nice thing about Harvey Mudd is that it\u2019s collaborative rather than competitive. And when you\u2019re facing a struggle, you face it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

UPDATE | March 27, 2020<\/h2>\n

\u201cDue to the COVID-19 outbreak, my work in supporting schools and school districts had to change drastically. As soon as school closures were announced, my county office of education team has been working around the clock to support students, parents and educators with guidance and resources on distance learning. One big challenge that I am currently tackling is creating high-quality instructional plans in science and arts for incarcerated students in our county\u2019s juvenile hall facilities, as they have a very unique set of needs and restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a first-year at Harvey Mudd, Hanna Ma \u201994 sometimes defined herself by what she wasn\u2019t, in addition to what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}