What brought you to Grand Haven?

I’m from West Michigan originally, from Montague. We used to live in Denver and we wanted to be closer to home. When I saw there was an opening here, Grand Haven’s a great school a community to be a part of, and so it was a perfect place to be.

Where did you attend college?

Hillsdale College.

What subjects do you teach?

Chemistry and Honors Chemistry, hopefully AP Chemistry one day.

What made you want to be a teacher?

I really love science and I love figuring things out and I love seeing other people light up when they figure something out. That’s kind of how I ended up here.

What do you love about your job?

There’s a lot of things. I love interacting with people whether it’s young or old, it doesn’t matter. I love working with people. I love ideas that high schoolers have, they have some great ideas. And seeing you guys grow, I think it’s awesome to watch people become young adults and what that looks like. It’s a great staff to be a part of as well. I like being up on my feet all the time. I love doing labs, I could go on and on.

What are the struggles that come along with your job?

I didn’t always teach, I did some other things. It’s hard because I guess there’s not as much flexibility. Just like you guys are here certain hours each day, you have to be here and that would be a struggle. I think figuring how to help students make connections would be another one. Sometimes my mind is going off in one direction and a student heads their mind somewhere else. Just making those connections and building those relationships.

What did you do before you taught?

I taught, and then I did commercial insurance for big companies and then I came back to teaching. That was because I didn’t want to teach for a while. I wanted to try something else out. I worked with some companies that were science related but I came back because I knew this was where I needed to be.

What do you do in your free time?

I love my family, so we spend a lot of time together. We love the outdoors. We camp, we go kayaking, hike, a lot of that sort of stuff.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

My college coach, Andy Town. He pushed us to pursue excellence in everything that we did and I think it’s a good challenge.