Lisa Marino is a graduate student in Adelphi’s Scholar Teacher Education Program (STEP). As an undergraduate, she majored in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology. She is pursuing the Adolescent Education track in STEP and has completed a Middle School Extension. After she attains her graduate degree, Marino will be eligible to teach grades 5-12.

Since childhood, Marino has enjoyed learning and attending school. Her mother and sister, both of whom are teachers, inspired her to put others’ needs before her own and assist students in achieving their personal best. When looking at college programs, Adelphi University distinguished itself because of the STEP Program, and Marino viewed it as an opportunity to explore the field of education while still completing undergraduate studies in the sciences.

Marino currently works as an adjunct professor at Adelphi, teaching a course called Green Sustainable Connections to students living in Chapman Hall. In this course, she examines sustainable initiatives through the pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. The course takes a look at local initiatives within the community and establishes connections to a larger scale global basis.The experience of teaching college students in a course of considerable personal importance has been an incomparable experience for Marino. Not only does this course function on multiple levels, including academic work that must be completed and personal decisions and actions that must be executed daily, it also brings together students from different backgrounds, uniting them under one specific cause: limiting and diminishing our negative impact on the environment.

Marino sees this course as a way to implement and practice educating the whole student. She strives to foster discussion in her classroom, allowing all of her students to feel that their voices are heard and their opinions are valued. She chooses topics based on student interest, and facilitates discussion on these topics in an open forum environment. Recently, they watched a current documentary, Before the Flood, which takes a look at how climate change affects the environment and what we can do on a societal scale to prevent the demise of endangered species and ecosystems across the planet. Afterward, Marino led a discussion on this documentary in which her students were able to express their opinions and consider individual impact. Through exercises such as this, Marino endeavors to make her students active participants in their learning experience.

This is something that she began to consider in depth when she volunteered at a STEAM Workshop where she incorporated activities in which students engaged directly in the content they were learning. “Science has real-world connections and applications. Getting students involved in hands-on, engaging activities, allows them to take pride in being a part of something big and gives them the opportunity to figure things out for themselves.” This concept has carried over into her student teaching, where Marino most recently taught a lesson on layers of the Earth, instructing students in using clay to create their own models. Though she is directly teaching Earth Science, she approaches her lessons in terms of how skills from everyday settings can be incorporated.

Marino encourages current and future STEP students to take every opportunity for development that comes their way. She lived by this advice last summer when she participated in the Marine Science Summer Institute, where she helped create a curriculum and designed activities for international Middle School students from Taiwan to physically perform in Hawaii. The program material analyzed the unique geologic features, marine life, and evolutionary background of the Hawaiian Islands. This program and trip were very inspiring for Marino, as they allowed her to set new goals for her professional development and envision a future for herself in the education field.

As an undergraduate, Marino served as the president of the Future Teacher Association (FTA) for two years, and public relations chair for a year prior to her terms. She was also an active volunteer for CALIBER (Cause to Achieve Leadership Intelligence Brotherhood Excellence and Respect), Adelphi’s largest community service organization.

Marino hopes to continue to find new and interesting opportunities to work as an educator in the field of environmental science.