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My Journey

Hello all,
My name is Nico Composto. I am currently studying to receive my degree to teach grades 5-12 social studies in Montana. My journey to teaching began as an undergraduate history major at Columbia University in New York City. It was during those years that I fell in love with the study of history. Many people view history as static and unchanging, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Studying history is about diving into topics and coming up with personal understandings of historic events. This is what makes studying history so cool: you need not agree with what has already been argued. In fact, when a student begins questioning what has been written in textbooks, that student has reached a milestone in the study of history. I love assisting young people as they work to arrive at this point.

Admittedly, after college I was not immediately sure what I wanted to do for a career. After trying my hand at coaching a college cross-country team, I decided to uproot myself and move to Missoula, Mt, where I acquired a position as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. During my year as a VISTA, I assisted the education director in operating existing education programs as well as creating new programs. The project of which I am most proud was the development of the Junior Docent Program, which is a free program that trains middle school aged students to be tour guides at the museum. The program has been very successful over the past two years and I am happy to note that it has succeeded in getting young people excited about studying and interpreting history.

It was during my VISTA year that I realized that becoming a teacher would be an incredibly fulfilling career, so I decided to enter the teaching education program at the University of Montana. I am now in my second and final year of the program (I will be student teaching this upcoming spring 2019) and I am excited to get out into the workforce and be the best teacher, coach and community member that I can be!

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