Nick Soltis has graduated from Muskingum twice over – once in 2010, with his undergraduate degree in middle childhood education with concentrations in science and language arts, as well as a K-12 reading endorsement, and a second time in 2013, with a Master of Arts in Education.
His first visit to campus exemplified the spirit of Muskingum. He says, “While walking around campus with my mom, we bumped into a retired professor of religion who immediately took us on a personal tour of campus.” A positive visit experience, coupled with the strength of the Education Department and his ability to diversify his major and not be “confined to just one discipline” made Muskingum an easy choice; Soltis adds, “A scholarship and the fact that the mascot was a Muskie sealed the deal.”
Prior to graduation, Soltis was offered a teaching position in the Garaway Local School District in Sugarcreek, Ohio, where he taught 8th grade science for one year. He then taught 5th and 6th grade math and science for five additional years. During that time, he earned his Master’s in Education from Muskingum, as well as a Master of Science degree in geosciences from Mississippi State University.
Soltis is now at Auburn University, in the second year of pursuing his Ph.D. in Earth System Science. He is involved in educational research that relates to how people understand the Earth as a system. In addition to his studies and research, Soltis also teaches a Historical Geology course and supervises pre-service science teachers in their initial teaching assignments in the field. He says, “I never truly left the classroom.”
Soltis hopes to pursue a tenure-track university position that bridges the gap between the geosciences and science education. He has a big-picture view of his pursuit of a Ph.D., saying, “I loved my job as a teacher, but knew at some point I wanted to get a PhD, which to me is a way to give back to a field that has given me so much and a way to impact how we teach on a much broader scale.”