Wheatley’s newest addition to the science department this year is Ms. Ade! She teaches STEM research and assists students who are a part of the independent science research program to focus on developing strong projects.
Read the Q/A below to get to know more about Ms. Ade!
Q: How did your interest in science develop?
Ms. Ade: Well, when I was in high school I was always a pretty good student- and I always liked science and math. I always wanted to be a teacher… and I changed a few times what I thought I would teach. I remember in middle school, I thought I would want to teach social studies as I found history really interesting. A lot of time in high school I thought I would be a math teacher. When I was going into college, I was thinking about majoring in math- but on the day of registration in August, right before school started, I went to Hofstra and I said I’m going to major in biology- and that was it. I got really hooked on biology and started doing research, and that was what got my interest really focused on science.
Q: How long have you been working in the education field?
Ms. Ade: This is my 16th year teaching- and of those 16 years, for 15 I have taught research.
Q: What is something that you look forward to doing at Wheatley this year?
Ms. Ade: I’m excited to be in a small community and really getting to know my students well. Coming from working in a larger school, I haven’t gotten to know a lot of the student population. So, this year, now that I’m teaching more classes and I’m a club advisor, I’m excited to get to know the students at Wheatley.
Q: What are your goals for this year?
Ms. Ade: I’m excited to be here and I’m looking forward to working in the research program. I’m hoping to get students excited about the research program and their future in their STEM careers.
Q: What are your favorite pastimes?
Ms. Ade: Probably watching football with my family. We’re big Jets fans, and we used to have season tickets to the Jets. So, going to games and watching games. Sundays are time for football and family. I also like hockey and baseball. I’m a New York Rangers and Mets fan.
Q: What are your favorite films/shows/songs?
Ms. Ade: Alright well, I am a big Billy Joel fan. We just went to go see him again this summer, and I’m hoping I get to see him again before he closes out his residence at Madison Square Garden. I’m not the biggest movie fan at the moment, but I would say one of my favorite movies is The Replacements. It’s an old football movie and it’s really funny. I prefer comedies, maybe rom-coms. In terms of shows, I watch Virgin River, a lot of Criminal Minds, and my husband and I watch The Curse of Oak Island. It’s this show on the History Channel with two brothers who’ve been searching for buried treasure on the island. It’s really interesting because they’re basically treasure hunters, using modern science and technology to try to help find it without digging out the whole island. My husband is in construction, so he likes when all the big machines come out. I clearly like science, so I like seeing all the things that they take out: like the tools that they use, the geoscience tools, and their carbon dating when they do find things.
Q: What are your favorite food/drinks?
Ms. Ade: My favorite food is pizza. I could eat any kind of pizza. I like white pizza with all the different cheeses. There’s no sauce, and then there’s some ricotta and mozzarella cheese which is my favorite. I like veggie pizza and buffalo chicken pizza. That’s why I like pizza so much- you can put anything on it, and it could taste good.
I also love ice cream. I like chocolate or coffee ice cream. My favorite drink order from Starbucks is the brown sugar shaken oat milk espresso with almond milk. Typically, I make my own coffee at home- and I put vanilla oat milk, but this time of year every once in a while you have to get a pumpkin spice latte.
Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Ms. Ade: So I will tell you two of my favorite places that I have visited that I would go back to. Typically, my thought when it comes to travel is that I like to see the world. There are two places I would go back to. First, when I was in college, I got to spend a January session abroad to the Galapagos Islands. I lived on a boat for about 10 days, traveling around the islands, and we spent some time on one of the islands as well. We also spent some time in Ecuador and on the mainland. I would go back to the Galapagos in a heartbeat.
The other trip was more recently. My husband and I went to Finland to see the northern lights, and we stayed in a glass cabin. We went on a husky ride and a reindeer ride, and we went ice fishing and snowmobiling at night, and it really was just a phenomenal trip. I would love to go back. It was beautiful to see the northern lights. I might wanna try somewhere like Iceland because some of the activities you can do are different, and you can still try to see the northern lights.
Q: So far, what is your favorite memory from teaching?
Ms. Ade: One of my favorite memories from teaching is keeping in touch with some of my former students.One of my proudest moments was when one of my former students earned her PhD. Because it was Covid, she invited me to watch her defense virtually, so it was really great to witness her accomplish that. After graduating high school, she went to John Hopkins, and she graduated from Columbia with her PhD in biomedical engineering. That was one of my more memorable moments. I’ve had a lot of really great moments with students, being a research teacher and watching students really flourish and get to talk about their projects, even if it’s not winning at a competition. Just being able to communicate and present their research at a competition is wonderful to see.
Ms. Ade is also the advisor of Wheatley’s Medical Club, so be sure to join if you want to work alongside her!