As a participant of the MISTI-Jordan GTL experience, Cristina had the opportunity to teach at two separate locations. The first was an organization called INJAZ which is a non-profit located in Amman, which aims to foster skill development in Jordanian youth. At INJAZ, Cristina worked with a group of 100 public high school students. Along with a few other MIT students, Cristina designed and taught a curriculum covering topics in medicine/infectious disease, neuroscience, computer science, and physics. Each member of the GTL teaching team had a chance to rotate through various classrooms to teach the different subjects. Cristina mainly taught the medicine subjects to the male groups of students, but also had a chance to teach in some of the female groups and teach neuroscience and physics.
After her time at INJAZ, Cristina taught at King’s Academy, a private school in Madaba, Jordan. Here she had the opportunity to work with younger middle school students and teach them about criminal science investigation. The highlight for her was ending the course by recreating a crime scene that students had to solve. For the last few days at King’s Academy, Cristina also had the chance to be a teaching assistant in a high school’s engineering course.
During her free time, Cristina enjoyed exploring many sites throughout Jordan and meeting various people who taught her more about life in Jordan and the Middle East. Cristina reflects that her GTL experience in Jordan allowed her to develop her skills in teamwork, curriculum design, and teaching while exposing her to a different culture and language
