What drew you to teaching?

When I was in high school, I saw the relationships that my teachers were making with me and other friends in high school. I realized that for my own career, I wanted one thing. What I wanted out of my career was community and to be able to build authentic relationships. I took some time to talk to the teachers I really admired to learn more about the profession. They discussed the highlights of teaching and how they enjoyed it. They emphasized how much opportunity there is for educators to build those relationships in the classrooms, other teachers, other students. Sometimes you do not even know the effect you are having on students until they come back later to share how they felt.  

How did you find yourself at Loyola?

I went to a Jesuit high school and knew I wanted to have a Jesuit education for college. I had applied to Loyola, and I received my first acceptance letter from Loyola. It was so exciting. As the process went on, and I visited other campuses I remember thinking, oh I cannot really see myself going to this college. Loyola continued to stay on my list, and when I visited towards the end of my senior year, I just knew this was the school.  

Once I visited, I knew I was going to come here. It was a nice spring day, the sun was out, I felt really open to whatever I was going to find. I recall thinking this feels like a place where I can see myself studying and living. Everyone was so welcoming; I knew I could find the community I was looking for in Loyola.  

I was really drawn to the emphasis the school put on social justice and working towards a better future for all our students. It is so cool to be in such an urban area and have so many different opportunities to explore nature.

Do you recall your first year at Loyola?

Yes, my first sequences of course, I was still getting on my feet, but thinking back, I wish I could enjoy that one more time. I had Dr. Seungho Moon. He is so nice and really tried to make all of us first year students emphasize community building, and the importance of using each other as a support system and building community amongst other teachers. It is unique among the courses at Loyola because we travelled to unique places across the city, and the whole class would travel together. I really love the communal aspect of the travel in sequence one. Now, I feel like an expert, I really know how to navigate the city and get around Chicago. 

Part of our first year, we even traveled to unique learning spaces such museums. Not all students learn the same way in the classroom, and this course taught us how to bring students to learning spaces outside of the traditional classroom setting. If it were not for sequence one, I would not have discovered all the unique museums and historical sites across the city. My first year at Loyola really affirmed my desire to become a teacher. I had the answer to why I want to become a teacher. 

I also really appreciated how the first year was a crash course in different education fields and grades. It was so awesome. I got to see high school, elementary, and middle school. It really helped me decide that high school is what I want to do.  

What do you appreciate most about Loyola?

I do really appreciate the emphasis Loyola places on caring for the whole person - cura personalis – and how I see this carried in the classroom. Our students are not just learners in the classroom; they are teenagers, children, kids, siblings, whatever other ideas they are interested in. I really appreciate seeking to know each of them for all their strengths, and they know I care for them not just as a student but as a whole person.  

It is especially important for young adults and teenagers in high school to feel valued and seen. Coming into this area where they might feel neglected if they are still treated as children - so seeing them as their whole person, responsibility for their whole self and building knowledge - builds trust and community with teachers and fellow students.