Mary Polking

As the eldest of eight children, Mary grew up helping her younger siblings with their homework and curating reading lists for them based on their interests. This work helped her discover a natural love of teaching. In high school, she tutored students from pre-K to 9th grade in both paid and volunteer settings and loved watching her students succeed. Mary graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BS in neuroscience and a supplemental major in theology and is now a neuroscience PhD student at Marquette University, where she studies executive function and memory in older adults. Her interest in how attention and awareness can shape learning has given her an enthusiasm for finding new strategies for content mastery.