Elizabeth Moose
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
In the nineteen years Elizabeth Moose has been an Instructor of English in the Department of Humanities at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, she has awakened students to their power and possibilities for learning. Dean of Humanities since 2011, she is NCSSM's nominee for the 2012 UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Early in her career, in a special program for "at risk" kids in Durham County, Ms. Moose's students taught her an essential lesson about good teaching: that students are whole human beings, not just intellects, and thus a good teacher must care about her students head and heart, intellect and imagination, body and soul. Love and joy, Ms. Moose believes, are the two great motivating forces in good teaching and good learning.
At NCSSM, Ms. Moose has translated that philosophy into action in a wide range of courses—American Studies, Western European Cultural Studies, Wisdom, Revelation, Reason, and Doubt, and Writing and American Literature. As one alumnus wrote, "She has a certain knack for encouraging her students to perform at their best. This unique talent is a combination of her infectious personality, her wit, her professionalism both in and out of the classroom, and the zest she brings to everything she teaches."
Ms. Moose introduced Creative Writing and Classical Myth to the NCSSM curriculum, and she created popular mini-term courses on the plays of Tennessee Williams and Ovid's Metamorphoses. Her carefully planned mini-term trips to Greece have become legendary. As one student wrote, "We learned so much and grew with one another as we fought the battle of Thermopylae and became Spartans ourselves. We all came back to America transformed in a way, somehow much older and wiser, and filled with the spirit of Greece. We can now see the importance of how the world flows together."
Ms. Moose is not only adept at engaging students in the classroom but also at stimulating their wider intellectual interests. "She invites students to study with her subjects close to her own heart," wrote one alumna, "and she offers her expertise even outside the bounds of the courses she teaches."
"My aim," says Ms. Moose, "is to inspire my students to lift their eyes to the far horizons and with confidence, passion, generosity, knowledge, and understanding, fly out into the future to translate their many gifts into service for the world." Her students are doing just that: "Ms. Moose," wrote one alumnus, "is that great teacher who helped me take ownership of my passion—my voice—and encouraged me to have the audacity to believe that others would want to hear it. She also taught me how to open my ears to others' voices. My career is a constant reminder of Ms. Moose's invaluable contribution to my growth as a writer, communicator, and listener."
Ms. Moose earned her BA in English and MAT in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has continued to grow as a teacher and scholar though study at The American Academy in Rome, The American School for Classical Studies in Athens, and The Athens Centre; through National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars; and through a Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Abroad and a Fulbright Teacher Exchange to Cyprus.