The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

Teachers who inspire daily

Teachers who inspire daily

Three students share how teachers actively shape their futures

 

The Engineer
Anindya Basu and Bruce Kawanami

Senior Anindya Basu wants to be an engineer. It wasn’t the influence of living in the engineering capital of the world that led him to decide on this future career pathit was his former Engineering Technology teacher, Bruce Kawanami. Kawanami retired from MVHS last year, but his influence while at MVHS is evident through inspired students such as Basu.

Basu’s enthusiasm in describing Kawanami says enough on its own about the teacher. He remembers Kawanami as a teacher who really cared, to the point where his enthusiasm for engineering reached further than the classroom. He readily took his students to outside events and science fairs that allowed them to experience engineering and science in a real-world environment. Basu recalls his biggest project during the year, the Synopsis Science Faire. “If you go there, every since judge knows [him] personally because they're like, ‘He's the most amazing advisor.’” Though advisors were only supposed to enroll their current students in the faire, Kawanami opened up the opportunity to any student interested.  

Basu also remembers how much extra effort Kawanami put into teaching his engineering students, spending hours of his own time and his own money hunting down materials needed for the labs he had to create himself. Because there are not very many standard Engineering curriculums for high schoolers, Kawanami had to create many of his own labs and project, and regularly consulted outside civil and mechanic engineers as well as engineering professors from San Jose State University on how to best help his students. Every year, he would tweak his labs and projects, continually making them better and more fun for his students. “But,” he says, “it was so much fun I didn’t mind doing it.” And that is the essence of what made Kawanami such an influential teacher in Basu’s eyeshe really enjoyed teaching. “I'm a kid at heart,” says Kawanami, “I had funit’s contagious.”

For Kawanami, what students took away from his class mattered a lot in his teaching. His goal was for his students to come to their 20-year reunion and recall projects such as the Water Rockets, one of Basu’s most memorable experiences from the Engineering Tech class.

When asked about his influence on students such as Basu, Kawanami said, “[It’s]] the greatest thing. Most teachers teach for the feeling that they’re making a difference. That’s why I left engineeringI wanted to help create more engineers.” And with students such as Basu, he certainly has succeeded.



The Writer
Kevin Lim and Mikki McMillion

There’s a lot to learn in a freshman Literature and Writing class, and not all of it has to do with English. Sophomore Kevin Lim learned how to organize 5-paragraph essays. He learned the definition of an “onomatopoeia.” And thanks to his English Teacher Mikki McMillion, he learned tips to survivng high schooland life.

Lim started high school with the misconception that Literature is an ìeasy Aî class and nothing more. ìI learned from [McMillion] that Lit doesn’t have to be a boring subjectif you really enjoy it, you could go to endless possibilities.”  
Those possibilities, for Lim, now include literary analysis, writing or reporting, and even teaching. If Lim chooses to be a teacher, it will be to share with other students what McMillion has shown him. He calls her teaching style “silently deadly.” She has a positive and joking nature, but in the end she won’t hold your hand. If you want the grade, you’ve got to earn it. She has helped Lim not only understand the fun in literature but also grow as a writer and a student.
“You hope to inspire your kids in some way,” said McMillion, “It’s a teacher’s hope that a student will be able to find something they have interest in.”
As advice for Lim in specific, McMillion jokingly says, “Don’t be a teacherwe grade too many papers,” but on a more serious note adds, “If that is something that inspires him, and if he feels like he can use his talents in a way to serve others, essentially what [teaching] is doing, then kudos for him.”
As a current sophomore, the future may seem a ways off for Lim, but thanks to one teacher and a room full of books, it just got a tad bit clearer.

The Scientist
Meg Begur and Renee Fallon


Prior to her junior year, current senior Meg Begur hated science. Now, she may be willing to trade in the business suit she always saw her future self in for a white lab coat of a Biotechnology scientist. This change in future attire and career path is due to her AP Biology teacher, Renee Fallon.
Part of what made Fallon such an influential teacher for Begur was her previous experience in the Biotechnology field, which Begur now hopes to enter. Fallon gave a lot of advice that pertained to the real world, rather than just what’s under a microscope in a classroom.  “She knows the marketing aspects of [biotechnology], and I’m interested in marketing, so I really like to understand it,” said Begur. “She tells a lot of interesting stories that really actually do inspire me.”

 

 

 
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