Class of ’54 Commitment to Teaching Fellowship for Alumni Recipients 2025
Amherst is proud of its graduates who have chosen to teach in urban and other school systems where students may be considered “at risk” or are socio-economically disadvantaged. Through the generosity of the Class of 1954, which has established a Commitment to Teaching Fund, Amherst is able each year to award stipends to a limited number of Amherst graduates who committed themselves to teaching in underserved communities across the United States.
The 2025 awardee biographies are listed below.
Sandy Alvarez ’06E is a first-grade teacher at Bancroft Elementary School, one of Washington D.C.’s highest-rated bilingual schools. Located in the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, Bancroft serves a diverse population with a significant percentage of Latin American students, many of whom are recent immigrants from Central America.
Sandy was born in Guatemala and raised in Los Angeles, California. Having grown up in L.A. without experiencing the distinct four seasons, images of the vibrant fall foliage of Amherst’s New England campus fascinated Sandy and ultimately influenced her decision to attend college there. At Amherst, Sandy majored in political science and served as a youth mentor through El Arco Iris, an after-school program serving students in Holyoke. In her junior year, she studied abroad for a semester in Madrid, Spain.
After graduating, Sandy taught English in Haining, Zhejiang Province, China. She then became a New York City Teaching Fellow and began teaching in Elmhurst, Queens, NY. In the 17 years since then, Sandy has taught at public schools in a range of low-income urban environments—from the South Bronx to North Philadelphia to various neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. Since teaching at Bancroft, Sandy was awarded two teaching fellowships by the Yale National Initiative (YNI), for which she wrote the curriculum units Let’s Go Bananas! U.S. Imperialism Through the Lens of a Fruit and Art in D.C.: Using Rock Creek Park as Our Playground, which were both published by Yale for use by teachers nationwide. In connection with these fellowships, Sandy served as YNI’s District of Columbia Representative, through which she promoted partnerships between D.C.’s public school system and faculty members at local universities to directly collaborate on additional new curriculum units. Outside of the classroom, Sandy enjoys international travel, scuba diving, and boxing.
Tian Buzbee ’13 For McKinley Technology High School’s Spring Spirit Week, the Monday theme was “Dress as Your Dream Career” and Tian struggled to think of a creative costume, since teaching math had been her “Dream Career” since she was in high school. Tian was lucky enough to pursue that dream at Amherst. Despite the education studies major not existing at the time, she took all of the education-aligned classes she could squeeze in between her math and art major requirements. During the Reading, Writing, and Teaching course, Tian’s internship at Holyoke High School clarified that high school students were the ideal age group for her. After college, Tian started teaching in New Orleans, Louisiana through Teach for America, and she stayed at her beloved placement school, Riverdale High School, for almost a decade. At Riverdale, Tian served as the math department chair and had the pleasure of coaching the Flag Performance Team and acting as one of the senior class sponsors. During her tenure, she was honored to be named the 2020 Teacher of the Year, and to serve on leadership committees at the school and district level. But after 9 years, Tian said goodbye to New Orleans and moved to Washington D.C. to be closer to family. She landed at McKinley Technology High School, a STEMfocused public school, and felt relieved to discover that D.C. teens are just as curious, hilarious, and hard working as her kiddos at Riverdale! Now, in her 12th year of teaching, Tian continues to believe in the importance of fostering student leadership. She supports the Class of 2026 and is the faculty advisor for the Student Government Association. In an increasingly tough education landscape, Tian also believes in the importance of a strong teacher community. She chairs the Sunshine Committee, which organizes faculty bonding activities and serves on the school union’s School Chapter Advisory Committee. When she isn’t at school or enthusiastically cheering on her students at their many extracurricular events, Tian enjoys visiting the many D.C. Smithsonian art galleries and playing ultimate frisbee.
Ryan Cronin ’02 is currently in his 19th year teaching English Language Learners at Whiting Lane Elementary School in West Hartford, Connecticut. He works with a caseload of approximately 50 children each year, delivering small group instruction to build students’ language skills and support their academic growth. Ryan collaborates extensively with colleagues and families to ensure the success of his students. Outside of the classroom, Ryan leads the Equity Committee at Whiting Lane, which includes representing the school in district level work and driving professional development and change initiatives at the building level. Additionally, Ryan has been awarded numerous grants and spearheaded initiatives that center the voices of his students including: creating an inclusive intake process for new families, starting a program where families can do read-alouds in their native language in their child’s classroom and creating cross-district partnerships to provide students opportunities to experience various cultural attractions around the state. Ryan received his master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Central Connecticut State University in 2006 and his Sixth Year in Educational Leadership from the University of Connecticut in 2020. Ryan lives in Manchester, Connecticut with his three children, father, sister and twin nieces.
Edwin Cruz-Garcia ’19 is finishing his 3rd year of full-time teaching as a science teacher at MESA Charter High School in Brooklyn, NY. Though currently instructing 11-12th grade psychology and environmental science students, he has previously taught bilingual 9th grade STEM and AP Chemistry. During the summer, Edwin creates and teaches a science-based Algebra 1 course for Oliver Scholars, a program targeting high-achieving middle school students of color in New York City. This program aims to challenge students to be able to handle the rigors of independent high schools and support them in their transition. Edwin strives to prepare students both at Oliver and at MESA to be able to adapt to any academic environment they find themselves in.
At Amherst, Edwin received his Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience. He was part of the Amherst College Emergency Medical Services, a Resident Counselor, and a member of the college choir. He wishes to bring a similar experience to what he had at Amherst to students in his classroom—an extremely challenging, but also extremely rewarding and supportive education. Edwin utilizes every experience he was fortunate enough to have at Amherst as a lesson to instill in his students, ranging from the rigorous and thought-provoking questioning in Neuroscience seminars to the lessons of cultural sensitivity and empathy in Peru with Project Salud. His goal is to have scholars leave his classroom at the end of a school year more confident in their academic ability but also in their ability to communicate their thoughts and questions with others, especially their next teacher.
After class, Edwin loves to rehearse with The University Glee Club of NYC, a men’s chorus where he is a tenor. He also loves learning jump rope tricks and finding new trails to hike.
Rachel Edelman ’09 teaches because she is a poet. As a language arts teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington, she connects students to the power of language to help them claim the power of their experience. Garfield is a hundred-yearold public school in the historically redlined Central District, a neighborhood that has experienced waves of gentrification alongside refugee resettlement. Working closely with her colleagues, she tangibly connects language arts skills to students’ inherent storytelling capacities. Together, she and her students craft original writing and art that matters to them and their communities.
Rachel’s debut book of poems, Dear Memphis, was published by River River Books in 2024. Her poems, essays, and epistles have appeared in outlets such as Lilith, Orion, and AGNI. At Amherst, she wrote a creative and critical thesis in English under the guidance of poet-in-residence Daniel Hall and Professor David Sofield, while also picking up a geology major thanks to the unwavering support of Professor Tekla Harms. In 2016, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Washington.
Rachel grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, as the fifth generation of her Jewish family to live there. Her own education in the Memphis City Schools grounds her commitment to accompanying students in their education. Across her writing, teaching, and organizing for Palestinian liberation, she enriches the conversation about belonging and reshapes the language for community that we have still failed to fully articulate.
Michele Morris ’02 was born in Newton, Massachusetts where she attended Newton North High School before moving on to Amherst in 1998. She majored in Latin American Studies and after her junior year she spent the summer as a volunteer teacher in a remote corner of Costa Rica. It was after this experience that she knew that she wanted to pursue a career in teaching. Upon graduation, Michele interned at an international school in Chiang Mai, Thailand, before returning to the states and earning her Master of Education from Simmons University. Michele taught 3rd and 5th grades outside of Boston for two years before following her passion for travel and moving with her husband to teach at the Munich International School. While there, she taught using the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme and learned tremendously from her international colleagues. Upon return to the United States, Michele worked as a math specialist outside Boston. In this capacity, she coached teachers, modeled lessons, developed professional development, and led math intervention groups. Although she enjoyed the math focus, she really missed having her own students, understanding what made them tick, and discussing the world around them. To this end, she moved back into the role of general 5th grade teacher in 2020 and hasn’t looked back since. She currently lives outside Boston with her husband and four children.
Ashwin Ramanathan ’08 has been a New York City public school teacher for 14 years. He has been teaching primarily computer science, and also some math, to high school students at the Jamaica High School campus in Jamaica, Queens, NY, for most of his career. He has also lived down the block from this school for nine years, and he often gets together with local graduates to catch up on their lives after high school. In his computer science curriculum, he has included topics such as web and game development, including Python and JavaScript, as well as experiments with Google Apps Script and CircuitPython (for IoT). Ashwin enjoys biking and other outdoor activities, and he spends his winters indoors catching up on programming projects.