My Quest to Discover the Unknown
I began to feel a sense of purpose in life when I moved to Morelia, Mexico the day after my 20th birthday in January of 1998. I spent five months learning Spanish at Centro Mexicano Internacional while experiencing the Mexican culture first hand living with my Mexican host mother Ana Laura Ramirez, and her son and daughter Olivar and Daniela. During my stay in Mexico I acquired a level 3 proficiency in Spanish and gained insight into the Mexican culture with the many excursions to cultural heritage sites throughout southern Mexico such as Uxmal, el Lago Patzcuaro, and Teotihuacan. After spending almost a half a year in central Mexico I resumed my studies at Norther Michigan University where I graduated with a BA in Spanish Education with a minor in History. I was afforded a second opportunity to return to Mexico in the summer of 1999 when my professor Timothy Compton invited me to accompany him to Mexico City where we conducted an independent review of Mexican theater for two weeks. I was awarded my degree after completing my student teaching at Negaunee High School in the small rural mining town of Negaunee, Michigan.
My first teaching jobs was at Rochester High School in Rochester Michigan. I was hired to teach Spanish 1 and 2 mid way through the year. I soon realized that teaching Spanish was very challenging. Fortunately my command of the Spanish language and my ability to quickly establish relationships with students allowed me to survive my first semester of teaching with some level of success and a great deal of lessons learned. The 2001 budget crunch in Rochester led to a pink slip at the end of the year, which prompted me to look for employment elsewhere. After attending a teacher job fair put on by Calteach in Detroit, I began looking for employment in California, which soon led to a job teaching Spanish at Napa High School.