My story

I grew up in Amity, a 1,000-person town not far from Willamette. I was raised on the same land that my great-great uncle farmed with draft horses, although our grape and wheat-growing operation was a bit more modernized growing up. A love of the outdoors was more of a pre-requisite than a choice, and my sister and I soon fell in love with climbing trees, caring for our chickens, riding horses, and even working long days in the vineyard (child labor laws, anyone?).

After I graduated from Amity High, despite my urge to get way out of town, I decided on Willamette University. I finally connected my love of the natural world to my education, and became an Environmental Science major. I remember being a bit surprised that my work study, tutoring 2nd grade reading recovery at Bush Elementary, was fun and rewarding. When I headed off to Ecuador for five months, I knew I wanted to continue on in tutoring and joyfully signed up to volunteer at a grade school. Then, during my senior year, I received a scholarship to teach science to fifth graders, and began to realize that this might be "my thing." After graduating college, I took a job with the Park Service, teaching environmental science in a remote town above the Arctic Circle. Despite the 24-hour sunlight, I fell in love with the community, the kids, and teaching. After returning home, I decided to save up some money by waitressing, making and selling pies, and growing a lot of my own food. I also spent six months traveling around Australia and New Zealand. After a couple years away from education, I knew it was time to return for good.

Right now, when I'm not in school, I love to garden, knit hats and socks, read, bake pies, and basically anything else you can remember your grandmother doing. I love being a student, but I really enjoy spending time in my student-teaching site (6th grade science), and practicum site (5th grade). I love teaching science, and hope to inspire young people to use inquiry to solve problems, scientific or otherwise.