I have been an educator since 2009 and have been at Open World Learning Community since 2012. More than any other school I've taught at, OWL fits my personality. I especially like how we encourage students to look at the world from other viewpoints. In order to truly understand the world, we have to have to understand how other people think and why they think that way. 

 

I was born and raised in West St. Paul, MN and had a pretty normal childhood. I would say that I am the black sheep, since I am the only boy. I have three sisters (two older, one younger). We’re all different in our own ways, but I am easily the biggest nerd and the quietest of the four of us. I am a lot like each of my parents, with the fun-loving nature of my dad and my desire to be involved in the community like my mom. 

 

If I could re-live one time in my life, it would be my four years at Hamline University. I made friends during this time that I still talk to today and took classes that changed the way I look at the world. My two favorite classes were Human Geography and U.S. History. U.S. History was the first class I ever took in college and I do not think I’ve ever read so much, but I use a lot of what I learned in this class today as a teacher. Human Geography gave me all new insights in how society works and how the environment shapes who we are. I also was able to run on the Hamline Track team where I was a sprinter and threw javelin. I continue to be involved in track as the head boys and girls coach at Henry Sibley High School in West St. Paul, my former high school.

 

As a kid, I was someone who loved being outside, playing hockey & baseball, and spending portions of my summer up at my family’s cabin. Not much at all has changed. I still love being outside, especially in the great outdoors of Minnesota. I still enjoy sports, especially track & field and watching the local teams. Instead of traveling to my family’s cabin, I like to travel to other locations, most recently Italy and California. My favorite places to travel to are Florence, Ireland, Austria, and Paris, but every city and country was truly amazing in their own way. I’m hoping to see many more places in the near future. While traveling has become a passion of mine recently, I'm still very passionate about film, music, listening to podcasts (mostly Freakonomics and All Songs Considered), and reading.