Father Gabriel Richard High School teachers are dedicated and caring, and bring unique approaches and techniques to their classrooms. They all share the common mission to help form the next generation of Disciples of Christ and prepare our students for their futures. Faculty Spotlights are an opportunity to learn a bit more about our outstanding faculty.
Cynthia Duncan
Education: Virginia Tech, B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry
Michigan State University, Masters in Biology Education
Teaches: Biology, AP Biology, Forensic Science
“Teaching seems to run in our genes,” says Mrs. Cynthia Duncan about her family. Married to a University of Michigan neuroscience professor, Mrs. Duncan also has a mother, sister, and son who teach. While her family members teach all ages from elementary to college, she feels that God has called her to work with high school students specifically. Along with decades of teaching experience teaching, she has worked in youth ministry in four different churchs.
As a young person who loved learning about God’s creation and life science, Mrs. Duncan had a “bad experience” of high school biology, and was saddened that many of her friends soured on the subject as a result. Attending college with the goal of becoming a biologist, she soon realized that her passion for biology was inspiring her to share the subject. “I wanted to do more… I did not want students to leave high school with a bad experience with biology.”
Teaching biology, AP Biology, and forensics, Mrs. Duncan brings that passion, in tandem with her Christian faith, to her work at FGR. “Making science relevant is really important to me. I want students to see biology as a way of not only seeing beauty in God’s creation, but I want them to wonder about how it can be understood so that we can take care of it. Life is beautiful and even in the details of AP Biology we can appreciate the workmanship of God.”
Her favorite teaching moments, Mrs. Duncan says, are “when I can see a student awestruck by the beauty of what we are learning, when their understanding is deeper than just a set of memorized facts.” She loves to see what the students build on the foundation she helps lay, “when students come back to share what they are doing with the knowledge they started gaining in high school.” Even better, some of Mrs. Duncan’s former students have become science teachers themselves!
In 20 years at the school, Mrs. Duncan says, “wonderful people have become lifelong friends.” The relationships have remained steadfast through the highs and lows of life and have helped her deepen her faith in God and become a better teacher. “I know that I can always count on my FGR family,” she says, and in turn, that FGR family is grateful for Mrs. Duncan’s work leading students to truth through science.