Emily Brown is a new English teacher at South Lakes. She was a student teacher and a college admissions counselor before she became a full-time teacher.

Has teaching always been your career choice?

No, teaching has not always been my career choice. This is the start of my start of my second career. I worked for seven years in college admissions as an admissions counselor. I reviewed students’ applications, helped them through the admissions process, and awarded scholarships. Because I worked with high school students, in my role as an admissions counselor, I realized how much I enjoyed it. That’s also how I realized that I wanted to be on the academics side and not on the admissions side.

What encouraged you to teach at South Lakes?

I was a teaching intern here at South Lakes. I loved it and I thought it was just a really great school. It just seemed like a really wonderful environment where people really enjoy what they do, and enjoy being here everyday. I thought it was a great fit for me.

What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

There’s a lot of rewarding aspects to teaching, but one of the things that I really enjoy and that hopefully I get to experience a lot this year is helping students who maybe don’t understand something very well, or maybe don’t really like what we’re doing in class, see that there is value to it and helping them to see how enjoyable it can be. Anytime you see students improve, or your students really get into what you’re doing, it’s a good feeling.