Radha Jayakumar's love of science blossomed after her high school physics teacher assigned team projects such as building an energy machine designed to crack an egg in 15 steps. Now a biology major in the teachHOUSTON program, Radha says she wants to similarly motivate: "I hope to inspire students to go out into the unknown – to do their own research – to be independent and to have fun."

With a father who is a researcher at M.D. Anderson Medical Center, a mother who is a pre-school teacher and a brother in medical school in India, Radha graduated from Austin High School in Sugar Land and enrolled at the University of Houston planning to become a physician. Yet, after learning about teachHOUSTON and presenting her first lesson — about metamorphosis to elementary school students — she was hooked on teaching.

That passion only intensified after she researched best teaching methods and served as a mentor to fellow teachHOUSTON students. After student teaching this fall – likely in the Fort Bend Independent School District - she plans to teach biology to 9th- or 10th-graders. "One of the main reasons I wanted to go to medical school was to help other people," Radha says. "You can help people by being a teacher. The money never mattered to me."

Athough standing before a classroom can be intimidating at first, help from teachHOUSTON, including from master teachers at UH and mentor teachers in the public schools, proved invaluable. And in addition to a teachHOUSTON scholarship, Radha also works part time in the HOUSTON office.

"My parents always pushed me toward things that I enjoy doing," she says. "They love the teachHOUSTON program because it's given me so much support. I have a whole group of new friends who are just as driven as I am."