![Meredyth Ohringer, right, and Professor Susan Mason have a discussion about child behavior in the classroom.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/mediacdn.hamilton.edu/images/16:9/980/160927hmlmeredyth011jpg.jpg)
During an academic internship at The Keswell School in New York City, Meredyth Ohringer ’17 worked in a middle school classroom with children who have autism, an experience that sharpened her focus.
Her time at The Keswell School was at the heart of the semester she spent off campus in the Hamilton in New York City program. Ohringer majors in sociology and minors in education studies.
“I loved working with the students there. The internship was definitely significant for me because I was able to see the incredible patience and care the teachers had, and how much love they put into their jobs,” she says. “This internship also made me realize how much I need to learn about developmental and learning challenges, so I now want to get a degree in special education.”
Even before Ohringer started at Hamilton she loved working with kids. In College she joined up with America Reads, tutoring second-graders in a school that was short on resources, and that clinched her interest in education. Until Hamilton Ohringer didn’t know much about sociology, but she took a course and found she couldn’t get enough of the subject. As it happened, sociology enriched her interest in education.
“Sociology taught me that each person is shaped by the people and institutions they are surrounded by, and my education minor showed me how those aspects play out as children learn,” she says.
Her goal is a master’s degree in early childhood general and special education. “I want to get a dual degree so that I can encourage children, no matter their learning difference or style, to find their strengths and to learn to love learning,” she says.