Rebecca Conley

Before going to SBU, I earned my BA from Pace University where I double majored in math and political science. Then I completed my MA in pure math at Hunter College. As an undergrad, I began tutoring math. While I was working on my doctoral degree, I was teaching at Pace University as an adjunct. I love helping people understand math, especially if they have struggled with it in the past. I knew that I wanted to be a professor so that I could share my passion for all types of math with my students. 

Position Description

As an assistant professor at a small liberal arts, teaching-focused college, I teach 4 courses a semester. This semester, I am teaching an introduction to statistics course, which is a core requirement; two sections of statistics for the life sciences, which is mainly for Biology students; and a probability theory class, which is for math and computer science majors. I am continuing to collaborate on research with my research connections from Stony Brook.

Structure of a typical day

I teach 3 days a week. On a teaching day, I have 3 morning classes and an afternoon class. While I’m not teaching I work on grading, lesson planning, holding office hours, and answering student emails. Some days there are faculty meetings or workshops. There is also a service component to my job, which can entail representing the department at open houses, advising students, and attending convocation and graduation. I spend some time every week working on my research, but for professors at teaching colleges, summer is a good time to do research.  

How did you find the job

All the jobs that I applied to were listed on HigherEdJobs.com, MathJobs.org, or on individual school’s websites. 

Advice to other students

Use your time as a graduate student to explore your interests: attend seminars, volunteer, do an internship, teach. Having experience is really helpful when you are looking for jobs. In every job interview, I was asked about what experience, knowledge, or ideas I could bring to the job.