“The positive impact that a relationship with an educator can have in a student's life is what drove me into education,” Van Atta said.
News, Media and Stories | Education
Three Pacific teaching alumni are among grant-winning educators in Oregon.
A kindergarten teacher's extra effort set Lillian Wolfe '20 on the path to teaching.
In a time of nearly unprecedented challenges to childhood education, parents can improve their children’s chances of success by adopting some simple considerations from the perspectives of vision, hearing and occupational therapy.
As the parent of five, Keli Bruehling BEd ’22 already knows she loves kids. But balancing that family with a job and a college education? That would take love and dedication. Bruehling is in her first year of the Pacific University School of Learning & Teaching bachelor of education program in Roseburg, Ore. “I quickly learned that my family, my employer, my professors and my cohort make an amazing support system and they want to help me succeed,” she said.
Andy Haugen ’11, MAT ’13 loves seeing his students’ “ah-ha” moments. “You always get a different group of students every year, and you never know what their background or thought processes are,” he said. “It’s always fresh, it’s always unique.” Haugen is a history teacher at Valley Catholic High School, a private school in Beaverton, Ore., where he also is the school librarian.
A first-generation college student, Garcia Angeles started his life in a farming community in Mexico. When he was 9, he moved with his family — his “amazing parents who have only a third- and sixth-grade education” — to Oregon, where he started fourth grade as an English language learner. Now, as the first in his family to attend and graduate college, he is pursuing his master of arts in teaching at Pacific, planning to work at a Title I school in or near Hillsboro.
As a faculty member in Pacific University’s School of Learning & Teaching, Bryan Cichy-Parker is focused on other people’s needs: both his students and the generations of children they will influence. “From the admissions process to graduation, you have someone by your side who thinks about your needs and the needs of the possibly two generations of children that you could end up teaching.
Alisha Martin MAT '18, and her husband Taylor, created the fitness brand Brute Fit, which produces premium health supplements.
Three Pacific alumni were among those featured by the Eugene Register-Guard as they explored how schools support students in a challenging political climate.