Q: What courses are you teaching this year and why?

A: I’m currently teaching five chemistry classes and one physics class. I actually went to school here. After taking chemistry with Mr. [Kendal] Smith, [Science], and physics with Mr. [Rudy] Scrupa, who retired shortly after I took the course, I really fell in love with science. I found that I was good at them. After tutoring some of my friends and classmates in those classes I found that I wanted to be a teacher for those subjects.

Q: Why did you choose to teach at Lake Central?

A: Most of the reason was that I graduated as a student here at Lake Central in 2013. It’s close to my house, [and] I love the new building and facilities. It’s great to be able to utilize this brand-new beautiful school.

Q: How does it feel working alongside your past teachers?

A: The staff are the people who inspired me to be a teacher so it’s great to come back and work with them. It was definitely weird at first, especially when teachers I look up to and respect so much ask me to call them by their first name. As time has gone on and they’ve continued to help me out, it’s become a lot more normal and it’s been a very humbling experience to have them now see me as an equal.

Q: Who are some of the teachers that you have had in the past that still work here?

A: The big one is obviously Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith was my inspiration to become a chemistry teacher. I have had Mrs. [Joan] Loden, [Mathematics], Mr. [Ron] Frederick, [English], Mr. [Darrell] Weirzal, [English], Mr. [Joshua] Clark, [Social Studies], and Mrs. [Katherine] Clark, [English]. There’s a bunch to name. Some of them have moved on since then but I’d say the people that I just listed are really some of my biggest influences.

Q: What do you like about the new school?

A: Well first of all you can actually walk down the hallway which is really nice [and] not having to bump into anyone else. As a science teacher, one of the coolest things is having all of these nice lab benches in our rooms so we don’t have to clear off space [and] we don’t have to go to a different classroom to do labs. It all looks nice and new, too. You don’t have crumbling hallways like we had when I was a student here.

Q: What have you found to be the hardest part of being a teacher?

A: The hardest part is the sheer amount of paperwork. All the grading, the meetings that you go to, the 50 or so emails that you get in a day depending on the day. There’s just a lot of