After high school graduation, students say goodbye to the place where they have spent the past four years of their lives and move onto bigger things; most students expect to never set foot back in a high school. However, Dr. Pamela Dominick has changed her career to return back to high school.
Dominick received her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Utah. She was introduced to the Northwood environment last year when she was a student teacher for Dr. Victoria Raymond’s science classes.
“What made me decide to teach was that I wanted to give back in that sense,” Dominick said. “I had the content and I had the ability and I wanted to give back. I wanted to give back to the community.”
Before she became a teacher, she worked in research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dominick expressed her reason for wanting a career change.
“In the research lab people come and go,” Dominick said. “It is very fluid. So you make connections and then they move on because there are postdoctorals or temporary research scientists, so they leave. That’s my least favorite part about that job. People move in and out.”
Dominick is excited to use her knowledge from her previous jobs to teach high school students.
“After getting my kids from their childhood and into school, I was ready to go back and apply all the content knowledge and all the knowledge that I had, the experience that I had and not only educational experience, but experience being in the world with what you can do with science,” Dominick said. “I was ready to take that experience back to high school students and help guide them and I was also equipped to teach because I had the content and the experience.”
Dominick majored in both chemistry and biology at the University of North Florida, however she was assigned to only teach biology this year.
“Biology is impeccable in many places,” Dominick said. “It is everywhere, it is ubiquitous and that is what fascinates me the about biology: just that it is everywhere. Everywhere you turn, there is a biological concept and knowledge that you need in biology to understand something.”
Dominick has enjoyed her small time at Northwood, and a large proportion of her enjoyment has come from the science department.
“I love my departmental colleagues,” Dominick said. “I like them a lot, the faculty in the department, and I like the community and I like that I live and work in Chatham County and I see all of you [students] outside of the school, wherever I am.”
– By Sarah Helen Shepherd
