MSUM alum fastest to ever earn science teacher of the year

Jake Pundsack grew up fascinated with the outdoors. From an early age, he wanted to learn everything there was to know about anything living.

"We had this spider that lived in our mailbox, and it captivated me. Eventually it laid eggs, and I put them in my bug box, and when they hatched, I was just hooked," says Jake, a 2022 MSU Moorhead graduate.

BS in Life Science Education 

This fascination grew into Jake not only learning about animals but wanting to teach others what he learned. "I couldn't stop explaining how the life cycle of a spider works to anyone I could," he says.

Although his passion was for plants and animals, after high school he decided to pursue being a medical doctor. In his first semester at another university, he got hands-on experience with professors and doctors in his field, but eventually realized he wanted to get back to his roots: teaching others.

"I knew MSUM had a great teaching program and biology department, so the choice was easy," Jake says. 

"It was the hands-on experience, and great examples of instructors, that made me the teacher I am today," — Jake Pundsack

Jake attended Minnesota State University Moorhead and immediately felt the support he needed to succeed academically. a His classes and professors were catalysts for his professional growth.

"It was the hands-on experience, and great examples of instructors, that made me the teacher I am today. My professors embodied what it means to be a great teacher," he says.

Jake followed in his professors' footsteps after college, taking their concepts and excellence in teaching and applying them in his own classroom in Melrose, Minnesota. Recently, Jake was awarded the 2024 Minnesota Science Teaching Award, in just his third year as a high school science teacher. This makes him the shortest-tenured teacher to receive the award in its history.

The award recognizes one secondary science teacher each year who exhibits exemplary science teaching in the state and provides the teacher with $1,000 to use in their classroom. Jake was chosen because of his teaching proficiency and reputation with instructors and students at the school.

The majority of Jake's teaching is justice-related, with his instruction being rooted in different biological social justice problems, like limited access to quality health care. He also incorporates local wildlife with students, studying mussels in a local river and the environmental factors that affect them.

Beyond the Classroom

Jake also felt an overwhelming amount of personal support at MSUM. As a queer student, he'd always struggled to find a safe space to express that part of himself. Growing up, Jake wondered whether you could be openly queer and live a happy, successful life, a thought that was further reinforced by an experience with one of his teachers. 

"I had a teacher in school that I knew was queer, but he was so closeted and closed off to talking about it. I started to believe that's what life as a gay man was like," he says.

Jake felt comfortable enough after two months at MSUM to share this part of himself and no longer live in fear of embarrassment or ridicule because of it. He credits the accepting culture of MSUM, and the Rainbow Dragon Center, with giving him the confidence to be vulnerable with others. It was this college experience that started to break through the misconceptions he had earlier in his life.

"MSUM taught me not to be embarrassed of myself. I applied to be a Resident Assistant, and that was the first time I had told anyone in authority over me that I was queer. I was so nervous, but I was met with encouragement and acceptance," he says.

When Jake graduated in 2022, he took with him an excellence for teaching and the confidence to be himself, although adversity tested that confidence almost immediately. 

"MSUM taught me not to be embarrassed of myself," — Jake Pundsack

Jake was a victim of an anti-gay hate crime in 2023, his second year as a science teacher at Melrose High School. He was no stranger to opposition and prejudice, as leading up to the incident, there were smaller instances of hate directed towards him.

"I would walk through the halls and hear the f-slur being said between students, and many would write mean and hateful things on the desks in my classroom," Jake says.

The months of adversity and notes on his desks culminated when Jake woke up in the middle of the night to pounding on the walls of his parents' house.

He saw toilet paper hanging from the trees, a common prank put on by the kids in the school, and didn't think much of it. But that morning he was terrified at the words written on his car: obscene anti-gay messages, one implying he was a pedophile.

He reported what happened to local authorities, but was adamant that those involved shouldn't face charges. Although he was deeply bothered by it, and it shook his confidence to the point of questioning whether he should continue being a teacher, he wanted the students in his school to have the opportunity to learn from it. 

"This is changing the perspectives of LGBTQ people for the better in Melrose." — Jake Pundsack

It was Jake's humble response to a hate crime committed against him that opened the community's eyes to a shift that needed to be made. This started immediately at his school, as other teachers supported Jake, and became allies for LGBTQ students. Jake's classroom was no longer the only place that felt safe for queer students, as they were able to express themselves freely under the support of other teachers.

But the impact didn't stop there, he says, as the town as a whole began to understand and become better advocates for the LGBTQ community. "This is changing the perspectives of LGBTQ people for the better in Melrose," Jake says.

This experience never got the best of Jake, as he always remembered the reason he became a teacher: helping students learn what he's learned himself. How he responded to the situation, and his love for teaching biology, has garnered him respect.

Jake Pundsack has been awarded for his excellence in teaching, a skill grown and fostered by his classes and professors. But that isn't the only thing he's taken out of his time at MSU Moorhead. Jake's grit to push through adversity, humility to spin those experiences into teaching moments, and heart for students to be the best people they can be, has changed an entire community for the better.

References used
Forgrave, Reid. "Anti-Gay Graffiti Traumatizes High School Teacher in Stearns County Town." Star Tribune, 6 Oct. 2023.