Alumni Highlight

Sarah Garcia

My name is Sarah Linen (formerly Garcia). I graduated from the physics department in 2012 and went on to obtain my physics teaching credential to teach high school in 2015. I spent the last 2 years at San Dimas high school teaching AP Physics and physical science. This is my 3rd year teaching and I am at El Modena high school teaching regular and conceptual physics. I have also been teaching introductory physics labs at Cal Poly since Jan 2013. Cal Poly Pomona really helped me and pushed me to become a physics teacher. I owe my start to professor Homeyra Sadaghiani. She invited me to join her physics education research which led to a published paper, research projects, and different outreach opportunities. She also encouraged me to become a Noyce scholar and really pursue teaching. I am thankful for her and the department for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to succeed and push myself. I knew I wanted to teach high school physics but Cal Poly gave me the tools and experience I needed to really be successful and accomplish my goals.

The first picture below is me with my students at Knott's physics fun day. The second picture is my ID picture for El Modena. They let me pose with a catapult.