Letter of recom m endation for M egan Ahlquist April 13, 2014 To Whom It May Concern: It is with great pleasure

that I recommend to you Megan Ahlquist. I have known Megan from her participation in the course, The Night Sky, during May Term 2013 and as my teaching assistant in the same class for the fall of 2013. She was a great student to have in this class as she worked very hard to understand the material and accomplish the course objectives without flaw. Megan is a very motivated and dedicated person. Her questions were always good, suggesting that she had reflected on the material before hand and was clearly thinking about the topics or concepts. She got along very well with other students working together and was always honest and polite in her dealing with others and myself. She was constantly willing to go the extra mile and get things to work out correctly. I have described Megan as being tenacious and persistent with the night sky and the course content. If she did not understand, she would ask, and wrestle with it until she comprehended. She received an A in my course. Afterwards, I began to think that as an English major, Megan, could help me improve the course by making it more accessible to the non-science students who take this course. As an astrophysicist who loves the night sky, I try to give the students all that I can. The Night Sky has been a very popular and successful course. I think that it serves a great role, but there is always room for improvement. I approached Megan during the fall of 2013 about working with me to make a major effort to make the course content clearer. Who better than a non-science major who is an excellent writer? Her main effort was to develop a study guide that would follow the Power Point presentations, but nonetheless allowing the students to take notes. As Megan is student teaching this semester, I have had to find a replacement TA. We have continued to improve this component of the course. Megan is a very bright person who will easily succeed in her role as a secondary education teacher. She definitely deeply cares about teaching. It is my opinion that Megan will do extremely well as a teacher. She should be given the best opportunities to develop her talent to the fullest. In this regard, I believe that she definitely qualifies for the position offered at your institution. Therefore, I whole heartily recommend her to you. Please, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to call me at (616) 395-7142 or via email at gonthier@physics.hope.edu. Sincerely yours,

Peter L. Gonthier Professor of Physics