By Tiffany Whitfield
Biological sciences alumnus Anthony Le uses his expertise in science and engineering as he exclusively teaches three medical and engineering classes in Virginia Beach Public Schools.
As the department chair for career and technical education and technology teacher at the Landstown High School Governor's STEM Academy and biological sciences adjunct instructor at Tidewater Community College, Le uses his nontraditional path of securing his Bachelor of Science in biological sciences and Master of Science in biomedical engineering to help discover new pathways to help students in STEM fields.
As a Virginia Beach native and honors graduate of Kempsville High School, he earned a scholarship offer from ODU. His original dream was to pursue a pre-medical/pre-dental major. Academically he kept pace with the rigorous courses, but his time was also occupied at local public schools. He started coaching volleyball shortly after graduating, then added substitute teaching during his junior year at ODU.
“I found myself filling up my schedule with work quite quickly and took a hiatus from ODU to save up money for my remaining credits,” Le said.
Because of his close connections with ODU’s biology faculty, he knew he had to return to school.
“I had some great mentors in the College of Sciences that still pushed me to pursue the medical and/or dental route,” said Le, citing biological sciences Professor and former Dean of the College of Sciences Chris Platsoucas and Associate Professor Emeritus Emilia Oleszak.
However, after substitute teaching, it became clear that he had pivoted away from a medical career and toward teaching.
“As I became more and more fascinated with mentoring students, the idea of long shifts and the resulting stress in medical settings became less attractive,” Le explained.
When he returned to ODU, he resumed his undergraduate studies in biology, then continued his studies at the master’s level in biomedical engineering and obtained a full teaching licensure.
“I discovered ODU’s biomedical engineering graduate program and decided that would take me full circle and intersect the science, engineering and medical worlds,” Le said.
After graduation, he took several positions at Princess Anne High School. His career began to expand more when he began teaching full-time at Landstown’s Governor's STEM Academy.
Le is the technology education teacher at Landstown and has been on that campus for nearly eight years. He exclusively teaches biotechnology foundations, biomedical engineering and a “Project Lead the Way” introduction to engineering design course.
“I'm the only one in the entire city of Virginia Beach that teaches those three courses,” he said.
Because of his subject-matter expertise, his students can explore curriculum designed to pique their interests in technology and science.
“I am a faithful proponent of nurturing everyone who is willing to try, to challenge uncertainty, and to fail, repeatedly, for that is how we ultimately succeed,” he said. “That is ultimately what science instills – to be resiliently curious and stubborn, even.”
Recently, he was awarded several grants that funded a Cultural Expo and STEM Carnival. And this past spring, Le secured a first-of-its-kind partnership with NASA.
“We are the first and only school in all of Virginia Beach City public schools where students could potentially be the first in this area to design some products and technologies for NASA astronauts,” said Le.
His students finished first in the nation in a culinary competition and are working with NASA scientists to process an ethnic soup recipe for astronauts on the International Space Station. NASA also chose a team of biomedical students to develop 3D printed medical instruments for spaceflight. His students started research for the project this year and will have products ready in late 2023 or spring 2024 for submission.
At the STEM Carnival, students got to design and build projects from scratch with the focus on biomechanics. The carnival was led by biomedical engineering and biotechnology juniors and seniors at Landstown.
“When they build their teams, they also involve underclassmen as well,” Le said. “And then we also outreach to elementary and middle schools, so it's a community event.”
At the Cultural Expo, students preserved food through fermentation “while researching unique recipes from around the world,” Le said. “It’s like Epcot’s world countries where expo-goers get to sample food and learn about various cultures, so students get to educate as well.”
Diversity is important to Le and plays a part in how he teaches his budding scientists and engineers.
“Diversity entails not only acknowledging and respecting but embracing and celebrating differing perspectives,” Le said. “In science, I find it crucial to have input from lives full of varied experiences; we cannot definitively answer the currently unexplained without insight from all perspectives.”
Le continues to challenge himself and his students in and outside of the classroom through various projects.
“If I don’t know something, I'm going to learn it and experiment. So from the science side I get a little bit of feedback every day, and that allows me to continue to be fluid and shape who I am,” he said. “If I may emphasize a takeaway I am genuinely passionate about, everyone is capable of indulging their curiosity. Scientific exploration needs you.”