It’s a new school year for Mount Saint Joseph and with the new school year, we welcome a whole new class of freshman as well as new teachers. This school year, I am taking Geometry with Mr. Clovis Njongue; the newest addition to the Mathematics Department.
As you can tell by his name, with it not a common “American” last name, Mr. Njongue is actually from Cameroon. Njongue is pronounced Jon-ge, having the ‘n’ silent in the beginning of his name. Even though Mr. Njongue is from Cameroon, English is his primary language and he speaks it well. He also speaks a few other languages including French, Thai, as well as a little bit of Turkish. Given his fluency in other languages, he has taught in other countries including: Cameroon, Thailand, Cypress, and now the United States. Mr. Njongue has really experienced different parts of the world while teaching mathematics and he is now bringing his experience to our classroom in Room 22 at Mount Saint Joseph.
Mr. Njongue is more than qualified to teach at the Mount, having taught in several different countries. He has also well versed in different types of mathematics as well. He has taught Geometry, Algebra, Calculus, and Statistics. Our new member of the Mathematics Department has also taught Computer Science. For most of Mr. Njongue’s professional career, he has been a teacher (for eight years), but has also been a counselor, at times, and an instructor for Mathematics and Science camps.
Over the years he has expanded his teachings in Mathematics in many ways. As a student in college, Mr. Njongue was the Head of Student Affairs at Cameroon College of Arts and Technology. His duties were to enforce school rules and regulations among the students. So even before he even was a teacher, he was regulating rules as if he was one, practicing the profession without leaving school. Then Mr. Njongue, went on to be a Senate Chairperson at the University of Student Union. Soon, he would move on to be an Assistant in Seminars and Workshops for Mathematics at Bambili Student Development Centre.
After that he went on to be a Distinguish Instructor at the Government Bilingual High School Deido where he taught Applied Statistics and Calculus, Geometry, and Algebra. At the Government Practicing High School Yaounde, Mr. Njongue was a Computer Science Teacher and then would later be a Math Instructor at the Government of Bilingual High School Diedo until moving to Thailand to teach at Uthaiwittayakhom Secondary and High School. In Thailand, he taught 3-4 classes a day with class sizes of 35 per class. He also was a camp assistant for a Mathematics and English camp and a camp coordinator for a Math and Science camp. He was in Thailand for about two years before coming to the United States and eventually became part of the Mathematics Department at Mount Saint Joseph.
Having a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics as well as a Teaching Certification in Mathematics and Computer Science, he has been able to use his knowledge in educating the youth in many different places. I have really enjoyed having him these first few weeks of school and hope he enjoys teaching us as much as we enjoy learning.
Christopher Flynn ’19 is on Twitter at @c21flynn