Math Teacher Jude Loeffler: An International Teacher Turned Motorcycle Rider

by ANDREA LI

Upper School mathematics teacher Jude Loeffler, who is new to Menlo, first arrived in California in the fall of 1997 after an extended motorcycle trip across the United States. Prior to his journey, Loeffler taught classes in both Korea and Thailand, from 1994-1997.

Loeffler taught conversational English at an after-hours school in Korea, and, in Thailand, he taught precalculus honors at an international school, as well as a third grade class. Ultimately, Loeffler found the culture in Asia to be different than in the United States. “[Asia] was very different. [...] The way people work is different. The population density is different,” Loeffler said. “Like here, you walk around and you don’t bump into anyone, but in Korea, you’re constantly bumping into people just because there [are] so many people.”

Loeffler first picked up motorcycling in Thailand because of how common it was. After working in Asia for around three years, Loeffler made the decision with a few of his friends to leave Asia for a motorcycle trip around the U.S. “[My friends and I] decided that it was time to leave [Asia] and come back to North America, but none of us were ready to just jump back into being full time workers in Canada or the United States,” Loeffler said. “So, instead, we got motorcycles, and we started a big crosscountry trip. Two of us left from Toronto and met the third guy where he lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and we just started driving.”

Loeffler found the motorcycle trip to be incredibly impactful, especially in terms of exploring the diverse geography of the U.S. “All of it was memorable. Just the change in geography from state to state was amazing,” Loeffler said. “You knew exactly when you left the state because the geography changed, or you crossed a major river.”

One moment that stood out to Loeffler was when, after experiencing rain for the first three weeks of his trip, a woman in West Virginia took his and his friends’ clothes to wash and dry them. Although it rained again the very next day, Loeffler still remembers this action as a kind gesture today.

Another memorable moment was when Loeffler and his friends came across a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. According to Loeffler, there were around 100,000 people on motorcycles present at the annual rally while he and his friends happened to be passing through.

During his trip, Loeffler also had a bizarre encounter with a nuclear missile base. “We had a really interesting experience in Idaho, where we had to take a detour around what looked like a military installation, but we didn’t know what it was. And then later that night, we realized that what we had driven around was a missile base,” Loeffler said.

Before finally ending up in

California, Loeffler and his friends stayed in Iowa for around a month, where they worked various jobs to save up money. “We knew we were going to run out of money in Iowa, so we ended up securing a couple of hotel jobs. [...] And then we also got jobs working in a cornfield,” Loeffler said.

By the time Loeffler finally ended up in California, he had faced his fair share of difficulties on the motorcycling trip, including having to camp and cook in rainy weather. However, stopping in California didn’t make things much easier, according to Loeffler. “I think the hardest thing was when we finally made it out to California. [...] I only had $100 and a bag of clothes — that was it. That’s what I started life in California with,” Loeffler said.

Despite this, his experience with teaching in Asia proved useful when finding a job in California. “I spent the first few years of my career teaching in Korea and Thailand so when I came to California it was pretty easy to get a credential and start teaching, mostly in the public schools,” Loeffler said. “After getting my [Master of Arts] in 2007, I started teaching at local colleges and independent schools.”

After becoming an educator in California, Loeffler also ended up teaching internet personality Emma Chamberlain at Notre Dame High School in Belmont, not too far from Menlo. “[Chamberlain] was one of the smartest students I’ve ever had,” Loeffler said.