By: Maanas Oruganti ’18
Mr. Sachin Salgaonkar, one of the many new faculty members on campus, recently joined the Mathematics Department as an Algebra and Calculus instructor inspired by Bellarmine’s Jesuit philosophy.
“I realized that a school like Bellarmine focuses on developing the person rather than just the knowledge,” Mr. Salgaonkar said. “And I really enjoy that about this school.”
Mr. Salgaonkar graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in mathematics and a hoped to pursue a career in the finance sector.
“I took a mathematical finance class at Davis and I really enjoyed it,” Mr. Salgaonkar said. “I was also interested in research because I had conducted undergraduate research and I loved it.”
However, during the years following his graduation, Mr. Salgaonkar decided to explore tutoring while applying for jobs in finance.
“I figured I might as well continue to learn about being a better educator,” Mr. Salgaonkar said. “At first, it was a temporary thing; I was thinking about becoming a financial adviser.”
But he felt a strong connection to his work as a tutor and began to enjoy his time with his students.
“I started to really engage with it,” Mr. Salgaonkar said. “And I started to fall in love with the profession.”
He then moved on to secure a teaching credential and a master’s degree at Santa Clara University and taught Algebra I and II for a year at Monta Vista High School before joining Bellarmine
“I spent my year working with mostly freshmen and sophomores although there were some juniors in my classes,” Mr. Salgaonkar said.
Mr. Salgaonkar currently teaches Algebra II and Multivariable Calculus Honors in the Lokey building. He maintains different approaches to his classes, hoping to instill certain life lessons in his students as they study the course and move on to higher levels of math.
“At the Algebra II level, my main goal is for my students to become more focused on organization,” Mr. Salgaonkar said.
He plans to revolve his class around certain values such as time management and organization. He also wants to stress on the importance of punctuality and precision.
“These are real world skills that employers and adults expect from you,” Mr. Salgaonkar said. “I want my students to develop these soft skills in addition to mathematics.”
With his Multivariable Calculus class, Mr. Salgaonkar hopes to convey to his students the importance of making sense of problems and persevering in solving them.
“I want my students to be exposed to the idea of grit,” Mr. Salgaonkar said. “You’re going to have falls and stumbles, but you have to be able to pick yourself up and keep at it and that is so essential in life.”
He plans for his students to take these lessons beyond the classroom and apply them to the real world.
“What I’ve learned along the way is that it’s not so much what you know, it’s how much work you’re willing to put in to develop your own skill,” Mr. Salgaonkar said.