Position at OWL: Intervention Specialist working with Credit Recovery students, Crew Leader

As a graduate of St. Paul Open School in 2003, I am so happy to be working at OWL with several of my former teachers.  When I was a student at Open School it was still a K-12 school, so I have spent a lot of my life as a part of this community.  

After graduating from high school I pursued a bachelor's degree in English, beginning my undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris, then finishing at the U of M, Twin Cities, with a year at the University of New Orleans through a national exchange program.  

After receiving my BA, I did not quite know what to do with my life, so I continued working at restaurants in the Twin Cities.  I have worked serving the food of some of the best chefs in MN, which has been an incredible journey.  But all journeys come to an end, and I am transitioning away from restaurants and into education.  

In 2013 I received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lesley University.  Lesley is located in Cambridge MA, which I enjoyed visiting twice a year for the two and a half years of my low residency MFA program.  Since graduating I have continued to study writing by attending many poetry workshops, notably the Dylan Thomas International Summer School in Wales, and the Bemidji State University Northwoods Writers Conference.  

In 2021 I completed my MN Teacher’s License credentials through Hamline University and I am now a licensed 5-12 Communication and English Language Arts teacher.  I love working with students on reading and writing, and I am especially passionate about teaching literature that helps connect students to their communities, and shows students that literature is for everyone.  I also love helping students become better writers by teaching them to recognize their personal writing habits and by teaching them the art of revision.  

Some of my interests outside of reading and writing are gardening and travel.  I am working on planting as many MN native varieties of plants in my yard as possible; gardening is definitely my zen place.  I also love to travel and try to go somewhere I’ve never been at least once a year.  I love to travel with my partner, Alex, and my daughter, Iris.