Humans of JHS: Noreen Nsereko
March 30, 2023
A ball full of energy, and Scottish culture beaming out of her, science teacher Noreen Nsereko’s presence fills the science lab. Teaching biology in the environment and AP envionmental science, she is loved by her students.
Nsereko met her husband Victor during their first week of university in Scotland. They then moved to Canada, and three years later they moved to Iowa after Victor accepted a position at Pioneer.
Nsereko’s biggest inspiration is Victor. He has a tree conservancy non-profit in Uganda, and she finds his passion for saving endangered tree species very inspiring.
“He’s a research scientist and he’s like a natural scientist in the way that he thinks and he’s from Uganda originally and he bought some land back in uganda almost 20 years ago and he’s been developing that… we have a nonprofit tree conservancy group and I say “we”, but it’s really his doing. But he’s trying to save endangered and threatened tree species in Uganda. His drive to do that is just really inspiring,” Nsereko said.
When Nsereko first moved to Iowa she had a job at Iowa State University in agricultural extension. She worked with farmers and taught them how to transition to organic farming. Through this experience, she found out she enjoyed teaching, so she decided to become a teacher. She has now been teaching for 16 years.
Some of her favorite things about teaching are being able to teach students how science works and being able to share her passion and love for the environment every day.
“… we were doing an APES lab just now and students were having to design turbines to generate electricity and I just love the excitement like a good lesson when students are really thinking critically and trying to figure out the problems. I like that excitement about learning,” Nsereko said.
Nsereko starts off each class with good things to help students focus and readjust before starting to work.
“ She’s really nice, and she does alot of hands-on activities, more than other teachers do. And she always has either a question of the day, or gives us an option to do good things…” Vanessa Simpson ‘24 said.
Nsereko is also the sponsor for the ‘Girls in Tech’ club. Adonawit Meshesha’25 is a co-founder of the club at JHS. The club’s goal is to bring opportunities to girls at the highschool and middle school. Their other goal is to show them how the future is technology and how they can be a part of it.
“Ms. Nsereko is the Girls in Tech sponsor and she is great because she gives us resources and a place to work. She is also the AP Environmental science teacher so she does a lot for our school,” Meshesha said.
Nsereko is very thankful that the students at JHS value their education, participate in class, and try their best.
“I had Nsereko in 9th grade, and she’s always been one of my most memorable teachers because she started off the year by telling us a story of how she’s eaten Boa Constrictor, which I dont think most people have ever tried before,” Theron Luett ‘23 said.
