There are many teachers at our institution. Each teacher is quite unique in there teaching styles and their pasts making each different from the last. On a day to day basis, students experience a variety of teaching styles and strategies of their teachers but it is quite uncommon to know them better than an occasional story that ties in with a lesson. Students are left to formulate their opinions on these teachers based on what they teach and understandably not on anything pertaining to their personal lives. One teacher, in particular, seemed quite unique in not only her qualifications but her world travel experiences. This teacher is Kallie Sczepanski(Ms. Sczepanski to students). For those who are unaware of her, she teaches both the Modern World History and AP Human Geography in room 310.

An interesting part of her past is learning about the numerous places she has been in Asia. She had stated,“I have been to a couple dozen countries. I try to hit the unusual ones so I have been to places like Nepal, Tanzania, Cambodia, and Azerbaijan.” All of which can be regarded as less common places to travel to. Ms. Szczepanski also stated that she plans on attending more common places like France and Italy in the future.

A major highlight of this teacher is the amount of background education. To detail the schools that she has attended she stated that,“ For undergrad, I went to Western and for law school, I went to the University Of Washington, then for my Masters and Ph.D. program I went to Boston University.” She has taken on many studies within these schools going on to acquire multiple degrees. These degrees include,“BA in the history of Africa and the Middle East with a minor in music performance. My law degree had a focus on international and environmental law and then my Masters and Ph.D. program is also in African history with an outside teaching field in Japanese history and a science in geography. And I have my teacher certification from Western Governors University.” Quite a long roster of qualifications for a high school history teacher. That is not to say that she has only taught high school.

Szczepański has taught in a variety of places around the world. She said,““This is my third year at the public schools. I taught at the university level for 5 years and I taught public school in Turkmenistan when I was in the Peace Corps.” Szczepanski taught at Boston University when she was a grad student. The classes she has taught mainly revolve around world history and 20th-century diplomacy except in South Korea, where she taught conversational English and comparative law at a university.

Out of the many places, Szczepanski has traveled to, many of them she thoroughly enjoyed. Szczepanski stated that “I absolutely loved New Zealand and I absolutely loved Nepal. As far as beaches go I think Zanzibar was the best although the Bahamas were very nice too.” Only one place truly stuck out like a sore thumb to her. She stated that Azerbaijan in 1998 was her least favorite place to have traveled to. This is because “ it was kind of a petrochemical hellscape at the time. I flew in and there these huge plumes of black smoke coming out of the refineries and there was a big oil slick over the Caspian Sea and it was dirty and dark and horrible looking.” However, she later stated that a friend of her’s has a husband who served as ambassador to Azerbaijan. Today the country has cleaned up most of the pollutants and is continuing to grow.

Other information includes where she grew up as a child. “I lived in Montana for the first ten years and then moved to Wyoming and then went to high school in Yakima”, said Szczepanski. Her favorite part her childhood was growing up in Montana because of the ability to ride horses and bikes in the area. She had moved to Wyoming and finally to Yakima which is where she went to high school.