Lee Schaffel is a new Teach for America core member who is about to begin her first year teaching at Maryvale High School in Arizona. With a background in astrophysics and a passion for science education, she is excited but also nervous about stepping into the classroom and making a meaningful impact on her students.

• "Big picture, I want to make Arizona students feel like they can do science. I didn't want to accidentally be one of those teachers who ended up making kids feel like they couldn’t do science or something like that."

• "What made me nervous about starting teaching is that I remember the impact that my teachers had on me for my whole life, for good and bad."

• "I think a lot of the time we focus on science as a measure of how intelligent somebody is, and it's not... I kind of want to change that perspective for Arizona students."