“When I came back from living in Europe for two years and found a job working at the Society of Publication Designers – the Oscars agency for graphic designers, I got to meet every single famous celebrity designer. I got to meet Roger Black, who now does newspapers and technology all around the world and for the art department of Rolling Stone magazine and David Carson, who would fly into New York City on a helicopter to come meet with us for lunch. He was the 10th best surfer in the world who became a graphic designer at 33, who is still causing international design trends.
I had student taught at Fort from 2002 through 2006 because I did grad school while working as a full time graphic designer. Eventually an opening came about in Fall of 2017 and Mr. Oberle reached out because I filled in as a substitute for an art teacher 3 years earlier. I did all of that while working full-time at Time, Inc. Content Solutions, where we had about 40 major clients, big brands that you would recognize from automotive and technology industries, and they did allow me to take a few hours off to do student teaching, or I would take a whole day off and then work about 13 to 14 hours the other four days to complete grad school.
I have been to over 40 countries and 5 of the seven continents. Just in the last few months, I went to Bali, Singapore, and Portugal, and I shared some of the photos with my students to help them get energized as we do our photography unit this spring. Every time I visit a country, I say, this is my new favorite country, and I really want to move there. I was blessed to be in Portugal, which I loved the mix of medieval architecture and street art.
A part of life that excites me is living on a ranch in South Dakota in the summer for the past 10 years! It’s a totally different experience than living in New York City because on the ranch, there are no sidewalks. There’s not even roads within the 350-acre ranch to get to different parts. At one point on the ranch, there’s even a 2,000-foot climb to the top of a place called Cherry Hill, which overlooks the whole valley.
I worked at other high schools, and the students said to me, “Miss, this high school isn’t like in the movies.” And I kept thinking, well, Fort Hamilton is. Fort Hamilton is the high school that you see in all the blockbuster silver screen hits and TV shows. We have everything here. You just have to partake.“
