Melissa (El) Hovik's teaching philosophy is one that encourages students to discover and explore interdisciplinary connections between computer science and other fields such as biology. Her primary teaching interests are in introductory CS, web development, and databases, though she also enjoys introducing students to other areas in CS including security, programming languages, and theory foundations. In all of her classes, she strives to motivate real-world applications into material, including accessibility, ethics, and security.