Tartan Teachers in Their Second Acts

CMU alumni Beth Durbin, Karari Hanks and Gerald Ng infuse K-12 schools with their CMU experiences

Working in music, chemistry and biomedical engineering, a trio of Carnegie Mellon University alumni were excelling in the careers they’d prepared for during their days on campus.

But each followed a call to teach, so they embarked on their “second acts” as educators for elementary, middle and high school students.

“I wouldn’t trade education for anything. It turned into a calling that I love,” says Karari Hanks, a Mellon College of Science alumnus and recent semifinalist for Louisiana Teacher of the Year.

Along the way, they’ve found their CMU degrees, combined with the experiences of their first careers, allow them to inspire students with fresh perspectives across the country.

“The lessons that I’ve learned from CMU — dedication, commitment, hard work, perseverance, responsibility and, particularly, confidence — all go into the foundation of every classroom I’ve ever built,” says Beth Durbin, a College of Fine Arts alumna and middle school educator.

The Performing Artist

Beth teaches sixth-grade science at Dorseyville Middle School in the Fox Chapel Area School District, outside of Pittsburgh. 

A versatile educator for more than 20 years, she has also taught fourth and fifth grades, literacy, reading support and gifted programs.

“Each teaching position is accompanied by new challenges that have provided me with opportunities to learn and grow as an educator,” Beth says. “CMU helped me learn to fear no challenge. I had to walk out on stage and perform by myself so many times. When you didn’t have confidence, you learned how to be confident. Instilling confidence in my students is a fundamental building block of our learning environment.”

She always wanted to be a teacher, but her musical talent drew her to CMU.

At the College of Fine Arts School of Music, Beth played the double bass, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in musical performance for the instrument in 1990 and 1992. The late Anthony Bianco, a CMU professor and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra bassist, taught her to have perseverance that she impresses upon her students.

“Mr. Bianco truly taught the value of getting the grade that you earned,” Beth says. “He would say, ‘I wouldn’t give anyone an A unless you were ready for the New York Philharmonic.’ When you earned the A, you knew that you were ready.”

By graduation, she had earned the A. After CMU, the western Pennsylvania native performed widely as a freelance musician, from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to Carnegie Hall.

Coincidentally, a concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and former CMU faculty member, the late Sidney Harth, asked her to join the KwaZulu-Natal Symphony Orchestra in South Africa in the 1990s. Beth declined.

“I wanted to stay and teach. Teaching is a performance art. The classroom is now my stage, and my students’ successes are my masterpieces,” she says.

A corner of her science classroom is filled with letters of appreciation, thank you cards and printed emails from past students, all in picture frames.

“This is my paycheck,” Beth says. “All of those messages are incredible stories. The music world was rewarding, but teaching is what I was called to do. There are no words to describe the impact every one of my students has contributed to my development as a teacher.”

The Scientist

College of Engineering alumnus Gerald Ng works at Newton South High School near Boston, Massachusetts, where he is a science teacher, head coach of the science team and co-chair of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee.

Gerald sought a career that would make a difference. At CMU, he studied signal processing at the College of Engineering, and earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer engineering in 1997. After graduation, he explored ways to improve hearing at Boston University, specifically studying how sound helps humans locate objects. He achieved a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 2005.

He expected to continue in research.

Through a friend, Gerald heard Boston Public Schools had a temporary job opening that was hard to fill. The candidate would need to teach both math and science and work with underserved youth.

Intrigued, Gerald agreed to an interview. He took the job and stayed to teach for 15 years at Boston’s Charlestown High School, where his courses ranged from remedial math to Advanced Placement physics.

“I am grateful that CMU has been a step in the journey that I’ve taken to get here as a teacher," Gerald says. “From the skills that I’ve learned to the relationships I’ve developed and kept — my ECE professors and peers, my dorm mates, the faculty from my English minor and the Asian Christian Fellowship. I wouldn’t be the person or educator that I am today without my time at CMU.”

As a scientist, one of the few male teachers at the school and the son of parents who emigrated from Hong Kong, he was able to connect with certain students who other teachers struggled to reach.

“We had immigrants from all around the world,” Gerald says. “For them to see me, hear me talk about going to college and have a Ph.D. was, in their minds, me living the American dream.”

Three years ago, Gerald accepted his current teaching position where the focus is physics and engineering.

“If I had stayed in research, I might have accomplished a couple of things that may or may not have made a difference,” he says. “By fostering a love for STEM in my students, I feel like I accomplish much more than I ever would have on my own.”

The Consultant

Karari is an assistant principal at Neville High School in northern Louisiana.

“I saw how CMU professors had a love for their craft,” Karari says. “My chemistry advisor (and Professor and Chemistry Department Head) Bruce Armitage wanted to make sure I would succeed. It allowed me to learn how you can’t give up on students. You have to reach out to them and find some commonality.”

He graduated in 2001 from CMU with his bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

Before becoming an educator, he worked in Atlanta, Georgia, analyzing water sources for the city’s water department and managing projects in environmental compliance for a private laboratory.

His wife’s career took them to Louisiana in 2007. Jobs in environmental consulting were scarce, but the local high school needed a chemistry teacher. The Monroe City School District offered Karari the job.

“It was a huge transition for me, but being able to bring real-life science into the classroom has helped my students and me,” Karari says. “Through my own experiences, I could tell them, ‘Look, when I was in the lab, we would need to know this.’ It took away the negative comments.”

He learned to thrive in his new career and was named a semifinalist for Louisiana Teacher of the Year in 2022.

Recently when an assistant principal position opened at his school, Karari felt prepared to accept the promotion. Another school administrator had already mentored and encouraged him to earn his administrator license.

“I love it,” he says. “To me, it’s a new challenge in life. Every day is a little bit different.”