Denise Story could have graduated from UT last year, but she didn't, and Dr. Marianne Breinig is to blame. A re-entry student with six children, Denise had more than enough to do with the demands of her family and a full-time schedule as a math major. But when she signed up for Physics 135, everything changed. "I wanted to teach," Denise said. "I didn't start off in physics. I started off in math. I took a year of physics with Marianne Breinig and I got hooked on it. [She] has a way of stirring interest in her students. She's a really good teacher." Denise had nearly completed the requirements for her math major but was so intrigued by physics she decided to stay. In addition to the Physics 135-136 sequence (Introductory Physics for Science and Math Majors), her coursework has included thermal physics, modern physics, contemporary physics, mechanics, and an optics lab. She is completing her physics major through the general concentration route and, in fact, will be the first-ever student to finish this program when she graduates in December of this year. Introduced in Fall 2001, the general physics concentration allows students to apply a substantial knowledge of physics to another field of interest to them, from teaching or journalism to medicine or law. For Denise, that chosen field is secondary education. Her background in physics has helped guarantee her a position as soon as she graduates. "Three different schools are fighting over me," Denise said. "I didn't go hunting. They came looking for me." She is moving to Onslow County, North Carolina, to teach high school physics and math (her husband started this fall as the choral director for the schools there). Approximately 120 miles east of Raleigh, Onslow County has 34 schools, as well as the base school for Camp Lejeune, the U.S. Marine Corps training base. Denise said the schools were happy to hear of her math degree but thrilled with her second major in physics. The combination has afforded her the luxury to choose the position that best suits her. "It's ultimately up to me where I go," she said. "I can teach the cream of the crop." She explained that she has the opportunity to check out labs, school facilities, and teaching loads before she accepts a position. While Denise has taken enough courses to complete a minor in education, that wasn't what got her the teaching offers she's currently reviewing. "They don't even know I've had the education courses," she said of the schools recruiting her. "They're more interested in the math and physics." In fact, Denise's teaching experience has come from home-schooling her own children, who range in age from nine to 20. "I home-schooled up until this year," she said, but still works with her youngest four children, often doing homework side-by-side with them in the evenings. "It sounds undoable," she said, "but it's not as undoable as it sounds." Regardless of where she goes, Denise already knows that after her five years at UT, she won't be getting much of a break. "I graduate in December and I start the first week in January," she said. Even now, she said there's still a lot more she would like to learn. "If I were staying here, I wouldn't graduate yet," she said. "There's more I would like to have done." If she and her family move back to Tennessee, Denise said she will definitely come back to the University. "I love UT," she said. "I've had a great experience here." Cross Sections, Fall/Winter 2002 Issue, Contents Page UT Physics News & Notes Page UT Physics Home Page This page was last updated on December 5, 2002. Please send comments to cal@utk.edu.