Diana Sontay enjoyed the fall 2025 semester she spent as a teaching intern at Discovery Middle School in Madison. On Dec. 15, 2025, she will receive her Bachelor of Science in secondary education from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences during commencement ceremonies at the Von Braun Center Propst Arena.
Ann Marie Martin | UAH
When Diana Sontay was in high school, she thought math was just not her thing as she struggled through the classes. Some people even agreed with her. But one math teacher objected.
“I always said, ‘I’m not a math person. This is why I’m not doing great.’ But he did not give up. He was always there, trying to help me if I had any questions. He showed me how to approach the problems from a different perspective. And then one day, everything clicked. I owe it to him. I’m very grateful to him for not giving up on me.”
Sontay learned to love math so much that she decided to become a math teacher herself. She will receive her Bachelor of Science in secondary education with a mathematics concentration from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences (CESHS) during commencement ceremonies Dec. 15 at the Von Braun Center. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System.
“I want to be that kind of teacher for other students, to be able to help them not give up on themselves,” she said. “I want to be able to teach kids that it might seem hard at first, but I can give them the tools to find the solution. I hope to be able to help them have that ‘aha!’ moment and be able to say, ‘OK, this is making sense now.’”
Sontay will be certified to teach middle school and high school, but right now she’s leaning toward the middle.
“I fell in love with the middle school age group when I was doing classroom observations. In my first semester, I had sixth grade at Challenger Middle School in Huntsville. I really liked being able to interact with the students and teachers there. For my second semester, I went to a high school, and I was working with juniors and seniors. I liked working with them, too, but I decided I liked middle school just a little bit more.”
Her preference surprised her.
“This was kind of funny because, before my observation semesters, I was dead set on high school.”
She chose middle school for her third observation as well as her internship, both at Discovery Middle School in Madison.
“Middle school is so important. This is where they’re establishing a lot of the foundations to be able to succeed when they move on to high school.”
Teaching seems the perfect fit for Sontay, but it wasn’t her first career goal.
“Originally I was going in for nursing. Throughout my whole high school journey, I was set on nursing.”
After graduating from Valley Head High School, she attended Northeast Alabama Community College where she realized nursing was not her path.
“I had to take a little bit of time to see what my calling was. I was able to figure that out with some help from the faculty.”
A friend who had graduated from UAH encouraged Sontay to check out the school.
“She told me that she had friends who graduated from the teacher education program at UAH. I also did my own research to see what their program was about and everything that it entailed. I felt like it was my best choice. It’s been a really good experience, and now graduation is a really proud moment.”
Sontay’s initial problem with math wasn’t the only rough spot on her road to graduation.
“Growing up, my main language at home was Spanish, and English was my second language. At first I struggled a little bit, but the school had really great programs that helped me and other students learn the language and the material. Eventually, we were able to excel because of that.”
She’s also a first-generation high school graduate as well as a first-gen college student. UAH offers First & Proud, a part of UAH’s Academic Success Advocacy Program (ASAP) to ensure that first-gen Chargers have the support they need.
“They’ve been really helpful, like all the faculty. They’ve been great at explaining the process. Being a first-gen student, I kind of had to figure things out on my own and advocate for myself. Having people there to help you have the best experience is just amazing.”