Dr. Maria Sanjurjo

Dr. Maria T. Sanjurjo has always felt a strong passion for teaching. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), and at the end of her bachelor’s degree, she started working as a research assistant. Her first teaching assignment was at Baldwin School, teaching Pre-Calculus and Calculus. The learning experience was extraordinary though she felt the need to go back to her Alma Mater, UPR, and pursue graduate studies in Pure Mathematics. Simultaneously, she worked as an Assistant Professor teaching Pre-Calculus to undergraduate students. She saw the struggle of so many students in making connections and the hopeless feeling of what they felt like a “meaningless handling of symbols.”

Encouraged by a strong desire to find ways to make Mathematics more meaningful and exciting, she started to take more education courses and integrate technology to provide a deeper understanding of Mathematics. Her thesis provided an instructional unit of curricular activities for the study of Functions using computers. In 2001, she started working at Antilles High School, where she noticed the need for a more meaningful approach to study something as powerful as Functions, which can model many real-life phenomena. Therefore, she continued her studies as a doctoral student in the same university. Her dissertation studied the effect of using multiple representations provided by technological environments in the comprehension of Exponential Functions. Equipped with knowledge and experience, she always tries to provide meaningful Mathematics to her students.