Cover Letter

Dear Small Liberal Arts College/Liberal Arts University

My name is Foreign and Female in Science and I'd like to get a position in a liberal arts college (preferred) or university.

I have a BS degree in Math from a SLAC that made one top 20 for something list or other. I had the wonderful opportunity to explore interesting classes and to talk with interesting people, both students and faculty. It led to my choice to study the Maths and Physics of Nails for Paper, at Very Famous Research University for my masters, where I further defined my love for the subject, and having narrowed it down to the Nails for Paper called Pushpins, I got my PhD on the physics of Pushpins at top 50 Research University. During my Ph.D. I co-wrote 5 grants with my adviser, where the degree to my involvement increased to the point of the last couple being my vision and a lot of my writing. One of them got start up funding. I also supervised 2 undergraduate students who worked exclusively with me, which ended up with two presentations at a national conference (a talk and a poster). Now I am at Large Public University doing a postdoc on exciting but solitary project on the physics of Paperclips.

While I find research exciting, I feel unfulfilled and not entirely happy. So I'd like to shift the focus of my career.

Looking back, my fondest memories involved primarily (1) teaching and (2) doing research as or with undergraduate student(s), and to a slightly lesser extent (3) taking up interesting classes or projects that would not make me research famous. Both the Very Famous Research University and the top 50 Research University required only 1 year of TAing courses. You may notice that I have done more than that. You may note the variety of courses too -- from math to general Staplery to the roles and place of women in Staplery. To be honest, I know it is unlikely you teach that same very courses in your school, but the breath should show you that I am adaptable. I have a variety of interests. I work very hard on my teaching. I love working with students during office hours one on one.

I love working with students on research too. My first conference paper was done as a undergrad at SLAC and inspired me to take on this career path. Since then, I have worked with two more undergraduate students. One of them was extremely successful -- we presented his work as a talk at National conference and keep being asked when it will be published. We are still working on the publication and it would have been published sooner if (1) I had been wise enough to notice that he is not saving the results past an image or two and (2) he had not decided to take a very lucrative computer programming job back in his home country instead of staying as an underpaid Ph.D. student (not that I could have had Ph.D. Student and he should have risked my leaving in a year or so). The less successful student still decided to continue studying Nails for Paper -- he just found he has more talent for the chemistry of Nails for Paper not Physics and is in a Ph.D. program for that. I also recruited a third undergraduate to work on this project for my Ph.D adviser the semester I graduated. I have more projects that are just waiting for a good student to come along and help me implement them (and I cannot supervise undergrads as a postdoc here). Some of them I had outlines as possible offshoots in my qualifications exam proposal so they are ready.

I also have management experience. For 3 years I ran a lab. This included working with building managers and contractors to completely rewire the lab, with vendors and purchasing to fully upgrade the computing resources in the lab (and all we do is computer simulations), with travel agencies and grants management to make arrangements for us to go to conferences and for visiting professors to give lectures and semester courses, and last but not least with the grants management office to make budgets for grant proposals. As mentioned previously I recruited (all the ) undergraduate students who worked in the lab. I also recruited a graduate student. For a few years I organized quite a bit of the weekend for prospective students in our department.

In summary, I love teaching undergraduates and doing research with them. I have some experience in that. I am not burnt out like some of the people who have oodles of experience but really want to do research and are looking at you as a fallback option in this bad economy. I also have some experience recruiting students. I know you are not the SLAC I graduated from. But I have perused your website to death (if only you knew how much, you would sue me for stalking). I am not applying to you because I need a job (I have 2-3 more years of F-1 visa here). I simply would love to work with your students, department and administration.

Thank you for considering my application. I hope for, and look forward to, an opportunity for us to meet and see if and convince you that indeed we really are a good fit.