New engineering teacher, Ishraq Ahmed, is a passionate educator who hopes to turn the classroom into a place where students can find their calling. He attended Passaic County Technical Institute, a high school that provides a four year engineering program. It was there he discovered his love for engineering.
“I realized I learned more in that program in high school than I did in college,” said Ahmed. “I liked the learning experience.”
After high school he looked for jobs and realized the corporate world was not for him. Ahmed found interviews stressful and did not feel comfortable trying to obtain a position he truly did not want. He remembered how much he enjoyed engineering and how much fun he would have helping others learn.
“I would end up helping a lot of people,” said Ahmed. “I realized looking back that it was a pretty fun experience doing that.”
That memory is what led him to teaching here at UACHS, where he could share his passion and knowledge everyday.
Ahmed, as an educator, focuses on making learning meaningful for his students. Although he teaches three different engineering classes, the goal remains the same throughout, he hopes to encourage students to learn and discover something new. Due to this reasoning, he does not believe in enforcing or pushing anyone towards the engineering path just for the sake of it. His main goal for his students is to make sure they leave with a new sense of knowledge once they leave the door.
“As long as they learn something that they didn’t know before coming into this class,” said Ahmed. “That’s the only thing I really care about.”
Outside of school, Ahmed is always broadening his learning horizons. His hobbies include playing and making games, a discovery he made in high school. His engineering teacher taught him programming, going beyond the curriculum. Ever since then he was hooked and spent his free time building games and teaching himself new skills.
“I would spend my free time learning how to program games for fun…,” said Ahmed. “I was constantly improving it and doing stuff with it.”
Ahmed’s passion for learning is something he hopes will affect his students and hopefully lead them to think about what comes next.
“The most exciting thing is teaching students something that’s, like, meaningful, something that they might explore in the future, it’s really what I care about.”
