Kate Gefell
Born the fifth of eight children, I learned early on to go with the flow at times and fight like hell at other times! I grew up in a suburb of Rochester, NY and because of the size of my family, I walked and biked and took the bus when I wanted to get anywhere. The all girls Catholic school that I attended gave me a surprisingly strong background in math and science- well, really, in all subjects. During high school I loved to sing in chorus, participated in eleven plays in four years, played a lot of tennis, and worked during junior and senior year as a cashier. I graduated at the top of my class and set off for the School of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University. Funny- at that time I had very little idea of what engineers did, but after looking at all of the literature from Cornell that was the path I chose. It has been a good path, but not without surprises!
I absolutely loved Cornell, and when I graduated and headed off to join the work force I was not convinced that chemical engineering was the right field for me. I spent four year working as an engineer in Philadelphia, PA for Rohm and Haas Co. The highlight of that work experience was the six months that I worked in France doing production engineering at a Rohm and Haas plant there. I left engineering after four years, took some time off to explore different interests, and after moving back to Ithaca several years later I went back to school for my teaching certification and Master’s Degree. Having the background in engineering paid off well, since I was able to gain certification in both chemistry and physics (and could have gotten certified in math with just another course or two), and during graduate school I picked up the necessary credits to become certified in Earth Science as well.
I have been teaching now for the better part of 20 years, taking several years off when my two children were little and working part-time for BOCES in Adult Education when I re-entered the workforce. Those children are pretty much grown up now- I have a son who just finished his sophomore year at Cornell, and a daughter who is in the tenth grade at Ithaca High School, where I am employed as a chemistry teacher. I have been at IHS for 10 years now, and I expect to stay put now until I retire in another ten years or so. I teach Honors Chemistry and Chemistry in the Community, although next year I will teach one section of Earth Science. For several years now I have been the faculty advisor for Key Club, which is a community service student organization.
Ithaca is a great place to live, and I enjoy biking, gardening, hiking, swimming, working out at the Y, Zumba, reading, cooking, making puzzles, and playing piano.