ASC volunteer Matthew Fink is leaving St. Louis U. High this year to pursue his Ph.D in Biology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. During his time at SLUH, Fink taught two sections of sophomore chemistry and helped with freshman service.

Fink was excited to return to SLUH—his alma mater—even amidst a tumultuous pandemic, as he saw the challenges of Covid as ways to excel in his teaching and knowledge of science.

“Even though this is a very unusual year of teaching, there will probably never be another one like it. I found consolation in the uniqueness and the challenges that it had to bring,” said Fink.

Throughout the year, Fink has been able to connect with students in his chemistry classes and to reconnect with former teachers in the Science Department.

“The students I have this year are great, they’re wonderful,” said Fink. “Even with the pandemic, they're eager to come in, they're ready to learn.”

Fink was also able to work alongside his former biology and anatomy teacher Tim O’Keefe and his AP Chemistry teacher Mary Russo.

Of course, Fink has also found difficulty teaching students in virtual and hybrid settings.

“It's been hard dealing with two groups at a time where you have your in-person group and then your online group,” said Fink. “It's hard to make sure that, as a teacher, you're engaging with both groups. You know, for me personally and a lot of the colleagues I talked to, we tend to gravitate more towards the people we see right in person.”

Nevertheless, Fink’s students have been impressed by his class in his first year of teaching high school.

“Mr. Fink is one of those one of a kind teachers that I am very glad to have had,” said sophomore Cal Kreuter. “One thing I loved about Mr. Fink’s class is that we could always chill out in his room before class started, and that he’d always be willing to help us with his work. Mr. Fink just has that swag about him that nobody could match. He always hyped the class up for labs and in-class activities.”

For the sciences and especially chemistry, this year has been particularly challenging. Labs and demonstrations, a fundamental part of science teaching, have been largely lost in a year of social distancing. Fink was glad that, towards the end of the school year, he was able to do some in-person demonstrations with his students.

“My students this whole year, they always asked me, ‘When are we going to do an explosion?’ because they so desperately wanted to see an explosion in class,” said Fink. “Finally, I delivered last Wednesday and Thursday's classes. As part of our topic with rates of reactions with help from my colleagues, I created this unstable compound called nitrogen triiodide and then literally all you have to do is just touch it with a feather and then it goes off. I got to do that in person for my group and the students got a kick out of it.”

Apart from his chemistry classes, Fink has also participated in freshman service projects this year.

“I did a lot of freshmen service here too, and we had to modify that too because normally we cook the meals and then they serve it and enjoy the meal with the Garfield place residents, but obviously this year we couldn't do that,” said Fink.

While Fink is saying goodbye to SLUH, this will not be his last time teaching. He plans to do more teaching in graduate school and then possibly become a science professor.

“I definitely knew that I really wanted to teach again starting out when I was a TA (Teaching Assistant) for chemistry, then that kind of led me to ASC wanting to teach, and then moving forward I might continue teaching but also encourage research too,” said Fink.