Zato Kadambaya \u201901, \u201904 came to the U.S. from Africa, studying with the intention of going into electrical engineering. Returning to Africa, he was inspired to help people receive a better education and decided to become a teacher. The Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) through UConn\u2019s Neag School of Education helped him fulfill his dream.<\/p>\n
Kadambaya became a teacher in one year, and currently serves as the math department chair at New London High School in New London, Conn.\u00a0Spotlight<\/em>\u00a0recently connected with him about his experience with TCPCG.<\/p>\n Q:<\/strong>\u00a0What are the strengths of t<\/strong>he\u00a0TCPCG program?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong>\u00a0For me, TCPCG stands for\u00a0T<\/strong>otal and\u00a0C<\/strong>omP<\/strong>rehensive\u00a0C<\/strong>urriculum\u00a0G<\/strong>uaranteed for successful teaching. As a school leader, I have recruited, trained, and worked with many teachers from different teachers\u2019 training programs.<\/p>\n TCPCG makes it easy to transit from one nonteaching career background to a successful teaching career. This is very important as an alternative, nontraditional pathway to teaching.<\/p>\n TCPCG\u2019s graduates are professional teachers, equipped to embrace the teaching profession with strong classroom management and effective content delivery skills.<\/p>\n TCPCG has unmatched resources and experienced faculty to train and mentor future teachers.<\/p>\n More importantly, TCPCG keeps in touch with alumni.<\/p>\n Q:<\/strong>\u00a0What was the program\u2019s impact on your career path?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0<\/strong>TCPCG gave me a second chance \u2013 with confidence. I was a successful engineer (plant assistant manager), but I was not fulfilled in my career. With TCPCG\u2019s strong preparation, I hit the teaching ground running, needing little or no assistance (which is very common for many TCPCG\u2019s colleagues I know and work with). Effective in classroom management and lesson development, I scored 4\/4 on the State BEST program in my second year of teaching. As a result, I was asked by the state to present to second-year teachers. Thank you, TCPCG.<\/p>\n Q: How did the program help you to become a teacher?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0<\/strong>TCPCG gave me the training I needed to be effective in the classroom. TCPCG showed me how I can bring my engineering skills into the teaching profession. This is the key, since TCPCG uses diverse backgrounds as an asset for success \u2013 and not a liability.<\/p>\n Q: Why did you want to go into teaching?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong>\u00a0I have a strong belief that a successful life is not measured by the job title, but by how one is able to positively impact other people\u2019s lives. With this as my moral compass, I find it natural to embrace the teaching profession where I will have the opportunity to help shape our future minds \u2013 our children.<\/p>\n Neag School of Education\u2019s TCPCG program<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is accepting applications until\u00a0Dec. 1.<\/strong>\u00a0Check out this video from other\u00a0TCPCG alums<\/a><\/em>\u00a0describing their experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zato Kadambaya \u201901, \u201904 came to the U.S. from Africa, studying with the intention of going into electrical engineering. Returning to Africa, he was inspired to help people receive a better education and decided to become a teacher. The Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) through UConn\u2019s Neag School of Education helped him fulfill his dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":202615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-202614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-28 11:49:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202616,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202614\/revisions\/202616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/202615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202614"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=202614"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=202614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}