Ethan Moreh is a recipient of this year’s Susan Blum Teaching Excellence Award, which is an award given to a Teaching Fellow who demonstrates a wholehearted commitment to and love of teaching. He is a senior at Hunter College who studies English with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. As a Teaching Fellow, he led a 7th grade reading class and co-taught a speech and debate elective.
Making an Impact in the Classroom
Prior to joining Breakthrough New York, Ethan worked at City Year. By supporting a 5th grade math class and afterschool program, he developed skills that enabled him to excel as a Breakthrough Teaching Fellow.
“I gained the skill of meeting people where they’re at,” Ethan explains. “That translated well into Breakthrough, where I was able to see how much and where I can push [a student] and make them the best version of themselves.”
Ethan saw the impact he had made in the classroom after winning the Susan Blum award. “I had students who had been really quiet in my class—or maybe I wasn’t their favorite Teaching Fellow—come up to me and say, ‘Congratulations, you deserve this,’” he recalls. “It was nice to know that students who I may not [have] thought I had the best impact on really did learn something in my class.”
A Future Social Worker
Ethan will graduate from Hunter in January 2024, after which he intends to enroll in a Master of Social Work program. His goal is to become a social worker in a public school, using what he has learned at Breakthrough to build relationships with young people and guide them towards improved behavior or academics.
This fall, Ethan will continue with Breakthrough New York as a high school placement assistant, where he will work closely with 8th graders as they apply to high school. Ethan believes these roles provide the necessary analytical and people skills to help him succeed in the future. “Whatever profession I enter, I’m going to come in stronger because I [worked] in education,” he says.
