From an early age I knew that I loved reading and writing. In high school, I started to focus those passions on my school newspaper, which led me to pursue a degree in journalism at California State University, Long Beach.
After graduation, I went on to work as a reporter and editor at publications like the Orange County Register, Santa Maria Times, and New Times. After five years of working in journalism, I decided to go back to school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to pursue a teaching credential so that I could share my love of words with the next generation of writers.
As a current English teacher candidate and freelance arts writer I'm a big believer in project based learning, writing workshops, high and low stakes writing opportunities, peer feedback, and reading for fun. It's my philosophy that writing is an accessible skill that my students can learn and improve upon and that everyone can find a book to get excited about.
My continuing journey as a writer, whether it's writing articles for publication, making to do lists, working on my young adult novel, or spending time on the art of hand lettering, makes me a better writing and reading teacher and shows my students that writing is a process, from first to final draft.