The Ch
B2
Sept. 3,
newfaces
Seven new upper school teachers and four new middle school teachers are joining the Harvard-Westlake faculty this year. From Japanese and Latin to math and science, these 11 will become familiar faces at school.
Eric Olson will join the upper school English department this year. Olson will be teaching English II and English III American Studies this year. “Harvard-Westlake was an opportunity I couldn’t pass on and I’m thrilled to work here,” Olson said. Though he was born in Sydney, Australia Olson moved to the California and attended University High School in Irvine. He attended Cornell University where he majored in English and religious studies. He later got a master’s degree in American studies at California State University Fullerton. Olson started his teaching career in Japan and taught English to students there for three years. He then chaired the middle school English department at Ojai Valley School. Most recently, he was a humanities teacher and division coordinator at Wildwood School. There, he developed curriculum and programs for English classes and advisory and outdoor education programs. “I look forward to seeing my new students and developing relationships with them,” Olson said. “I want my students to learn for the sake of learning, not just trying to get an A at the end of the year.” —Sade Tavangarian
This year middle school Latin teacher Derek
Wilairat
will move to the Upper School. A graduate of Pomona College, Wilairat received his bachelor’s degree in classical languages. “I liked it a lot at the Middle School, but I thought it would be challenging and rewarding to teach Latin at the Upper School,” Wilairat said. Wilairat and Latin teacher Paul Chenier will sponsor the Junior Classical League, a club active on both campuses. Aside from tackling a new schedule and new buildings, Wilairat is teaching more advanced courses. This year, he will have four different classes: Latin 2, Latin 3, Latin 3 Honors, and Latin 4 and 5. Having only taught Latin 4, the other courses offer a new and advanced Latin curriculum for him. In addition to the grammatical aspect of the language, Wilairat is “looking forward to learning Latin literature.” Wilairat said, “I’m going to do my best to be prepared here.” — Emily Wallach
The Foreign Language department will be joined this year by Kyoko Tomikura, who will be teaching Japanese II, III and IV. Tomikura previously taught Japanese at Brentwood School, and has worked as a teacher in California for the past six years. A Japan native, Tomikura first came to the United States as an exchange student. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Japanese literature at the Kokugakuin University in Tokyo. She then earned a second bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Utah. She is now working on her master’s degree in linguistics at California State University, Northridge. Tomikura’s favorite subject in high school was history. “I guess I was interested in people. That’s why I enjoyed studying history,” she said. “So, I would like to teach Japanese history, literature and society for the future. On the other hand, teaching Japanese language and culture involves teaching all elements above.” — Sarah Enriquez
Gabriel Ramirez will join the middle school English department and teach seventh and eighth grade English this school year. Even though he majored in English at UCLA, Ramirez was not always interested in teaching English. At first he was a pre-med student and then changed his major to art. It was not until he enrolled in a class highly populated with English majors that Ramirez discovered his passion for English. He changed his major and began studying British literature and ultimately graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education. For the past several years, Ramirez has been working as a teacher and advisor at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles where he taught English and Drama to high school students. “I wanted to help kids reach their fullest potential,” Ramirez said. Since graduating UCLA, Ramirez has dedicated himself to helping students reach their highest goals, he said. — David Burton
As a new member of the upper school English department, Ariana Kelly will teach English II and AP Language and Composition. Kelly graduated from Yale University in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in literature and then went to the University of Washington to complete a master’s degree of fine arts in poetry. Kelly began her teaching career in Utah, but later took a job in the Microsoft Recruiting division, conducting interviews and other hiring procedures. While the Microsoft job “enabled me to write because it was a day job that I left at the office,” Kelly found that “it wasn’t very fulfilling.” “I wanted to narrow the gap between my work life and my creative life,” Kelly said. After looking into positions at numerous schools, Kelly visited Harvard-Westlake and met students and faculty members and “felt at ease on campus.” Once the school year gets underway, Kelly plans on looking into a school radio program and getting to know the culture of the school. “I’m really looking forward to working with students again,” Kelly said. — Alice Phillips