First job as an educator: “This is my sixth year as a teacher and my second year here at Pahrump Valley High School. I started here in 2007 at Rosemary Clarke Middle School where I started teaching world history then moved to seventh grade geography. After that I moved over here to the high school.”

Arrival in Nevada: “I’m from Duluth, Minnesota. I left there because I needed a job and social studies teacher positions were hard to come by so I decided to come here.”

Motivation for becoming an educator: “The main reason I wanted to get into teaching was just to help kids and to make sure that they are prepared for their adult life. My social studies teacher in high school, Mr. Harnell, was a big reason why I became not only a teacher but specifically a social studies teacher. One of the best things about teaching is the ability to interact with a lot of different personalities and lot of different kids. This community has a lot of good young people.”

Pearls of wisdom for students: “The biggest thing I can tell them is be prepared because once graduation comes they are going to be on their own come June so they need to be ready for that next step. With the seniors we do a lot of career exploration.”

Toughest challenges facing teachers: “It’s definitely overcrowded classrooms and the budget crunches that most districts are going through. I know specifically here we struggle with parental involvement with students. A lot of these kids are coming here on their own and they don’t have that support system at home like what I had when I was younger. We are just trying to create an environment where we want to get more people in the valley who are in favor of education and make sure their kids get here and get what they need.”

Advice for individuals wanting to pursue a career in education: “Be prepared because education is going through a lot of changes. For good reason they are expecting teachers to be accountable for how students perform on state tests and things like that and maybe get into the areas like math, science, and special education where they are doing a lot of hiring if they want to come out of college and be able to get a job those are the fields they need to get into.”

Leisure time: “I don’t have any family in Pahrump but I’m out here with my fiancé. Even though we are both teachers we do a lot of work for our individual schools but we try to spend as much time together as we possibly can. We enjoy being with our dogs and going into town and just doing things that I guess everybody else likes to do like being outside as much as we can.”