Scots through and through

Scots

through and through

The Carlmont graduates who came back to teach

SOPHIA MATTIOLI

After a highly anticipated departure, most people do not plan to return to their high school following graduation. In Conner Fenech’s experience, coming back to Carlmont was never his objective.

“I initially wanted to be a lawyer, and I always thought, maybe when I got older, and I was done with law, I’d be a teacher. I never really thought that I’d come back to Carlmont, but as things progressed, I still knew a bunch of the teachers here and started talking with them. When I figured out I wanted to be a teacher, I decided I’ll come back to do my student teaching here,” Fenech said.

Having graduated from Oregon State, Fenech dove into law and became a junior paralegal. He then ended up in the field of early childhood development and quickly realized his love for teaching.

Fenech is now a History teacher at Carlmont; having that first-hand student experience gave him one leg up.

“I don’t think there was anything that I was wary of; I think it was really all just excitement getting to come back. As I said, I still knew and kept in contact with a lot of the teachers here, so I was excited to get to see them and to get to learn from them,” Fenech said.

Overall, Fenech has enjoyed the experience of revisiting the past, “It’s exciting, just being back on campus. I don’t think there was any part of me that was either nervous, scared, or kind of hesitant about coming back,” Fenech said.

Not only did his return to Carlmont help with his teaching experience, but it also made Fenech realize how much he missed the environment.

“Maybe a part of the reason why I did want to come back here, in the end, was that it kind of made it feel like home,” Fenech said.

Like Fenech, Ryan Chun, a Carlmont math teacher, didn’t always intend to become a teacher, but it was on his mind.

“I went to San Jose State University to study international business. I switched my major to Math because I wanted to learn more technical skills, and I always thought about teaching,” Chun said.

After graduating from San Jose State, Chun went back to school and got his teaching credential at Notre Dame De Namur.

There was a benefit to returning to the high school he attended, but for Chun, it wasn’t all fun and games.

“I do think there is an advantage if you have already built some rapport with your old teachers and if you are willing to learn, fail, and improve. But, there can be higher expectations of you because they have seen how you work before,” Chun said.

The life of a teacher takes a lot more than most realize; in his experience, Chun didn’t expect all of the communication and allocation a job in education requires.

“I did not anticipate how much work goes into this job outside of the class. We have to prepare for class, communicate to parents, peers, students, and admin, in addition to grading papers,” Chun said.

For history teacher Lindsey Moynihan, attending Carlmont was a significant factor in her pursuit of history.

“I have always enjoyed history, even in high school. A lot of my history teachers from high school still work here, Mr. Braunstein. Mr. Waller, Mr. Harrison; I had each of them at some point over the course of my high school career, as well as many other teachers who still work here. I always had a lot of fun in their classes, so that influenced me to continue taking history courses in college,” Moynihan said.

After obtaining her undergraduate degree from UCSB, she knew she wanted to pursue a master’s degree but didn’t know what she wanted to study. In the end, Moynihan had it all figured out after attending a master’s education program and student teaching for a while.

“From my student teaching experience, I realized that I liked working with kids and teachers. I ended up continuing with that; midway through the year, I understood that I didn’t really want to look for anything else. I really like teaching,” Moynihan said.

Once she decided education was for her, Moynihan quickly began her career,

MR. FENEcH

“I started to reach out to teachers at Carlmont and ask them to let me know if there were any openings in the district or the department. Eventually, I came back and started subbing in the district; most of it took place at Carlmont,” she said.

Similar to Fenech and Chun, having teacher connections helped Moynihan reenter the Carlmont community, “It definitely helps to know the school culture and climate, and to know people who are either department chairs or within the department to give you a little bit of a leg up on the competition. From what I’ve noticed, it seems that if you have an in, that typically helps you more, rather than if you’re blindly applying to schools that you’ve never heard of,” she said.

Overall, coming back to Carlmont, for most teachers, felt like coming home, “It was a very easy transition for me since I grew up here. It felt like returning home; it was welcoming; it’s always been welcoming. I always feel like I fit right in, so it wasn’t weird, and it wasn’t awkward,” Moynihan said.

MS. MOyNIHAN