"When I first began Creekside, my expectations were to gradually learn more technical skills about English and apply those skills to my daily life. Ms. Heejung's teaching style was one that motivated and engaged me in the lesson material through her thoughtful presentations, explanations, and clear communication and willingness to help. The most valuable thing I've experienced so far is being more confident to share my ideas due to Ms. Heejungs ability to create a safe and productive learning environment. I definitely believe that the knowledge I learn in this class is transferrable, and I find myself improving in my writing inside and outside school by utilizing skills I've learned within Creekside."

-Katie 

"Ms. Heejung is a phenomenal instructor. Her teaching of how to analyze passages was a skill that was extremely useful to me when I later took AP English Language & Composition. While my AP Lang teacher told our class that we might initially struggle with the rhetorical analysis because it is not commonly taught in schools, Heejung's teaching had prepared me for it. Thanks to her, I was able to complete that class with much more ease. Heejung's selection of curriculum is also wonderful. Not only were the books and short stories engaging to analyze, they opened my eyes to important ideas and lessons that I still carry with me. While she has high expectations, she was always easy to approach for help when I was struggling. I am grateful for all that I learned as her student."

-Gina

"It was extremely rewarding and fun to work with you! I throughly enjoyed class discussions and close readings that you guided the class, which brought questions and ideas that I had never even thought of for our short stories and books. Especially your extreme focus and passion on a book’s historical setting/background has helped me form much better annotations and ideas for books and future books I will read. I also gained so much knowledge about writing essays in this class with your guidance as well. With your ability to push students into truly thinking about themes, symbolism, and much more, it has helped me and others write stronger position essays/papers and thesis’s. Even outside of the classroom you have guided me with writing. I was, and still am, so thankful for guiding me with writing scholarship essays that were outside of the Creekside Program. I have learned so much about writing personal stories and using emotion for essays and also writing much more political topics through your guidance through writing these scholarships. With your help and guidance in writing essays, I have never gotten lower than a 100% in all of my essays at school, and I credit you for that. Truly, you have made me enjoy and understand books/short stories and writing in a way I never thought I would and your passion for teaching others is a gift that shines to everyone you teach." 

-Enoch