Alumni - Masters Program

Cathy Bi was born in Beijing, China. She attended high school in New Jersey, and recently graduated from Boston College with a degree in Philosophy. She is interested ethics, education, and the arts. Previously, Cathy interned and volunteered at various nonprofit organizations including the United Nations and the Interfaith Food Pantry Network. In her spare time, Cathy enjoys spending time in the gym, cooking with friends, and hanging out at the dog park.

I am a first-year MA student in the philosophy and education program. I graduated this year from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, with degrees in philosophy and psychology. I found there are many common grounds shared by psychology and philosophy, where philosophy could give broader theoretical guidance in the practical psychological framework. I am especially interested in early childhood education and its following personality development, which I believe could give me a further understanding of epistemological and ontological questions.

Kayla Tanenbaum graduated Columbia University in 2014 with a B.A. in English and Sarah Lawrence College in 2019 with an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction. For the past three years, she been teaching literature and composition to undergraduates in New York City. Her work as an educator inspired her to approach pedagogy philosophically at Teachers College. Kayla is most interested in the relationship between education and dignity and plans to explore how educating for beauty can serve as both a tool for liberation and as a bulwark against the alienation imposed on students by contemporary capitalist values.

Heidi Vernejoul graduated from Binghamton University and Sorbonne Université with a degree in Political Science and French. For over two decades she has been a college and high-school educator as well as a curriculum writer creating projects in health education and storytelling which are used worldwide. Most recently she has been consulting and designing curriculum for the Sex Education Initiative of Teachers College, Columbia University. She is delighted to return to TC to complete her degree after a long hiatus. Her current academic interest is in developing multidisciplinary, high- school curricula which foster the development of purpose and identity through philosophical inquiry.

Current Position

Doctoral Student in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University

M.A. Thesis Title

Derrida’s Influence on Debates about the Teaching of Philosophy

M.A. Thesis Title

The Contemporary Relevance of Dewey’s Creative Democracy

Current Position

History teacher at St. Luke's School in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

M.A. Thesis Title

Educating for an Imagined Future: The American Hope of Balancing Individualism and Collectivism in the Classroom and Beyond

M.A. Thesis Title

The Meaning of Intelligence

M.A. Thesis Title

Videogame Education and Philosophy: How Can We Cultivate Genuine Video Gaming Experiences even in Violent Videogames?

Current Position

Manager of communications and social media at Teach First, an education nonprofit.

M.A. Thesis Title

On becoming a civically engaged student: how John Dewey and Maxine Greene conceive of civic engagement through an aesthetic philosophy

Current Position

Assistant Director of Student Wellness at Columbia University

Current Position

Serves vulnerable and underserved communities. He works for the New York Public Library, as an assistant for Early literacy workshops, as well as for computer literacy programs for seniors. He also tutors Math and reading skills to special needs children in an UES community center.

M.A. Thesis Title

Art and Women's Empowerment: The Tools for Democratic Sustainability

Current Position

Pursuing further graduate studies in Great Britain. 

Ed.M. 2021

Staysi earned her Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University, with a major in Philosophy and minors in Theology and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is now in the Master of Education in Philosophy and Education program and is interested in addressing the role of trauma, gender-based and racial violence, and cultural conflicts through the lens of social and restorative justice theories within the scope of education.  

Current Position

College Counselor in the Harlem community

Current Position

Master of Education student in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology at Harvard University.  

M.A. Thesis Title

Emancipation Education: Considerations of How to Free the Black American Students unto a Lifetime of Self-Actualization

Current Position

Ph.D. student in the Philosophy Department at Northwestern University

M.A. Thesis Title

What Questions Do: “Pedagogical Interrogatives” within Group Inquiry

Current Position

Assistant Director of Experiential Education at Columbia University and currently working towards a second master’s degree in Higher and Postsecondary education at Teachers College

M.A. Thesis Title

Rousseau in Twilight: Conjuring Noetic Pedagogy from the Periphery

Current Position

Master's Student at St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland.

Current Position

Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cologne

M.A. Thesis Title

A Degrowth Solution Informed by Anarchist Education

Current Position

Coach at Equinox and Guest Coach at Wellness In The Schools (WITS) Family Fitness Fun Nights Program

M.A. Thesis Title

Recovering the Meaning of Fitness as a Practice of Self-Care

M.A. Thesis Title

Educating the Philosophical Imagination

Current Position

Senior Director of Operations & Business Development at Health Impact

M.A. Thesis Title

Education at the End of the World: Three Educational Paradigms in the Anthropocene

M.A. Thesis Title

The Civic Education of Advantaged Students

Current Position

Transitional Kindergarten Teacher at The Children's Workshop Oakland

M.A. Thesis Title

Code Switching for Comfort: A Qualified Endorsement of Code Switching in Reality Pedagogy

M.A. Thesis Title

Examining the Authenticity of the Argumentative Understanding of the Toulmin Model: A Proposal to Subject Warrants, Backings, and Their Truth Values to Questioning

M.A. Thesis Title

An Ethical Education: How a Teacher Flourishes Through Teaching

M.A. Thesis Title

Interpretation and Guidance: A hermeneutical approach to Dewey's views on curriculum

M.A. Thesis Title

An Artistic Discussion With Dewey and Plato

M.A. Thesis Title

The Attributes and Dynamics of Mentoring

M.A. Thesis Title

Transforming Social Marginalization and Hierarchies through Art

M.A. Thesis Title

Unasked Questions: Using W.E.B. Du Bois to Consider Race, Self and the Soul in Education

M.A. Thesis Title

A Common Core Without Substance: K-12 Schooling in the United States and the Problematic Aim of “College and Career Readiness”

Current Occupation

J.D./Ph.D. Student at The Pennsylvania State University Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Penn State Law Department of Education Policy Studies, Higher Education Program

M.A. Thesis Title

Education Not for Sale: A Stoic and Socratic Defense of Flourishing and Self-Care

Current Occupation

Implementation Consultant for Odysseyware

M.A. Thesis Title

Education and “The Real World”: Challenges for the Student as an Individual.

Current Occupation

Primary Unit Support Teacher at The Logan School for Creative Learning

M.A. Thesis Title

Phonic Philosophy: A Podcast of Philosophy of Education

Current Occupation

Vice Principal for the Upper School of Cahaya Bangsa Classical School

M.A. Thesis Title

From Competition to Communion: An Interpretation of Martin Buber’s Dialogical Philosophy and Its Implications in the Field of Philosophy of Education

Current Position

Responsible for academic readiness at a start-up company that deals with broad topics about Chinese students studying overseas.

M.A. Thesis Title

A Brief Analysis of the Concept of 'Good Teaching

Current Position

Ph.D. student in Education Studies at the University of British Columbia, Digital Marketing and Communications Specialist for Riverdale School District

M.A. Thesis Title

Education as Protest: Locating Resistance in a Marxist Theory of Education

M.A. Thesis Title

Rousseau on Happiness: A Reading of Emile

Current Occupation

Interim Executive Director of Raise Your Hand Texas

M.A. Thesis Title

Can Elite Private Schools Serve a Public Purpose?: Understanding capacity through discourse analysis of public purpose programming

Current Position

STEM Teacher at the Waterfront Montessori in Jersey City

Ed.M. Thesis Title

Community and Autonomy in a Montessori Setting

Current Position

Counselor for the Door's high school equivalency program

M.A. Thesis Title

Emerson's Conception of Self-Cultivation

Current Position

Philosophy Instructor, Fayetteville Technical Community College

M.A. Thesis Title

Epistemological - Political implications of Community-Based Education

Current Occupation

Philosophy instructor at Mercer County Community College

M.A. Thesis Title

A Case for Identity Ideals in Education: Refining Teaching Practice Towards Truthfulness and Goodness

Current Occupation

Web Developer & Education Technologist

M.A. Thesis Title

The Language of Love in Education: What It Is, Why It Scares Us, and How It Can Redeem Us

M.A. Thesis Title

The Ethical Engine of Education: The Productive Dialectic of Nobility and Humility

Current Occupation

Nicole Imhof received her MA in Philosophy and Education in 2012. Since graduating from the program, she has worked in the non-profit field engaging special needs children and adolescents in community-based youth programming. She also taught in the Ethics and Philosophy Department at Molloy College. Nicole completed a second graduate degree in Social Work in 2015.

M.A. Thesis Title

(Re)imagining Source(s) of Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Pedagogy in Education

Current Position

Clinical Law Professor and Director of the Pipeline to Justice pre-law program at the City University of New York School of Law.

M.A. Thesis Title

The Role of Pragmatism in Legal Education

Current Position

Teaches philosophy courses online for Ashford University and Southern New Hampshire University.

M.A. Thesis Title

The ‘Problem’ of Quiet Students: Helping Students to Speak (and Listen) in a Community of Inquiry

Current Position

Intervention Specialist Teacher in Literacy for the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, Somerset County, New Jersey

M.A. Thesis Title

Aesthetics and Healing: Affects and Interplay on Mind, Body, Soul, and Spirit

Current Occupation

Stay at Home Mom

Current Position

Middle School English Language Arts Teacher in Oakland, California.

M.A. Thesis Title

The Capability Approach Applied: Education, Equality and Human Flourishing

Current Occupation

Advanced Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Teaching Associate at the University of South Florida; and an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Tampa

M.A. Thesis

The Dialogical Philosophy of Charles Taylor

Current Position

High School Teacher of English literature, writing, and film studies in the Chicago Public School system

M.A. Thesis Title

The Role of Self-Love in Teaching

Current Position

Worked in private, charter, and public high schools in the US as a Teacher, Academic Dean, Curriculum Designer, and Teacher Coach

M.A. Thesis Title

Rousseau’s amour propre and amour de soi Applied to the Issue of Teacher Remuneration

Current Occupation

Social Studies Teacher at Memorial Middle School for the South Portland School District in South Portland, Maine.

M.A. Thesis Title

A Philosophical Analysis of The Lives of Others

Eun Yong Kim graduated with a Ed.M. in Philosophy and Education in 2007. Her thesis, entitled "The Cosmopolitan Experience of Bilingual Speaker of Korean and English," reflects Eun Yong's interest in the relationship between philosophy and bilingual / bicultural education. Eun Yong is currently preparing to enter a doctoral program where she will continue to explore the issue of language identity and its educational implications.

Current Position

Marketing Communications Manager at Cleary Gottlieb

M.A. Thesis Title

Vigilant Humanism and the Practice of Literary Criticism