While I am happily settled in Maine, I grew up in Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia, in a town called Radnor. I love this area as you have the big city, the Amish country side, and the Jersey shore, all within a two hour drive. When looking for where I wanted to study in college, I knew I wanted a small school where I could swim and still receive a strong education. I visited Bowdoin on a rainy day in April, which I now know to be "mud season". Nonetheless, I immediately felt a connection to the school and the state. I was lucky to be accepted into Bowdoin's Class of 2013. At Bowdoin, I majored in Biology, taking classes all over the department, and I minored in English, focusing mostly on poetry and nonfiction writing. Taking all of the education courses as I could fit in, I was accepted as a Bowdoin Teacher Scholar and completed my student teaching at Brunswick High School in the spring of 2014. In my free time at Bowdoin I swam long distance freestyle competitively all four years, and played the position of goalie on the women's water polo team.

Between graduating from Bowdoin and beginning my student teaching, I volunteered with a group called Bike & Build to raise money and awareness for affordable housing. As a group of 27, we biked from Portland, ME to Santa Barbara, CA in exactly eleven weeks. Along the way, we stopped in various cities and towns to volunteer with their local housing organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity. I met so many wonderful people and saw so many places I likely would never have seen had I not traveled across the country via bicycle. Throughout that summer, I learned a lot about myself and who I wanted to become. As someone who hadn't even owned a road bike before this adventure, I also proved to myself that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. Since then, I haven't stopped enjoying exploring new places and finding new things in places I've been before.

As my student teaching was coming to an end, I knew two things: 1) I wanted to continue teaching and 2) I wasn't ready to leave Maine. Lucky for me, Yarmouth was looking for a science teacher for the following school year and accepted me for the position. I was over the moon to be working in such a wonderful district. Even before I arrived, I had faculty reaching out to me welcoming me into the district and helping me prepare for the school year. I have been teaching science in Yarmouth since the fall of 2014 and have loved every minute of my time here.

In the fall of 2016, I started to feel the pull back to academia. I wanted a program that allowed me to advance my practice with the flexibility to continue teaching. After researching various programs, I applied and was accepted at the University of New England to pursue a Masters of Science in Education beginning in January 2017. I graduated with my masters in May 2019. In the Fall of 2020, I began work towards my Education Specialist Degree at the University of Maine in Special Education. I am a lifelong learner and hope to instill that curiosity and desire to always know more in my own students.

The year 2020 was a major one for many of us. For me, 2020 coincided with two major life events, as well. In August, I married my husband Tom - a high school English teacher! We had to make some adjustments to our original plan, but we ended up with the most beautiful day celebrating with a small group of family and friends. A few months prior, in April, we bought our first house together in Windham, ME! I am happy to call Maine my new forever home and can't wait to continue building a life here with this amazing community!