Melissa graduated from Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington) in Fredericksburg with a bachelors in Political Science. Upon graduating, she decided she wanted to give back, so she applied to Teach for America and was accepted as a member of the 1995 Phoenix Corps. Melissa  intended to complete two years at Valley View Elementary school then enter law school but, as life as has a tendency to ignore plans, she found that she loves teaching and has made it her life-long career. Now, having taught second and third grade in Arizona, 11th Grade US History at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake Virginia, and 11th grade humanities at HTHI,  Melissa is thrilled beyond measure to take on the role of Dean of Students.

When she is not teaching, she loves to read and take my kids to the park. My favorite creative outlet is sewing and poetry. In the past I have competed in Spoken Word poetry competitions and would love to return to the stage. It is also my intention to earn a Ph.D in Ethnic Studies -- but all of that can wait while I enjoy my young family.

A California native, Pam grew up in a small desert town called Ridgecrest where entertainment consisted of waiting to see the three stop lights in town all turn green at the same time. Thankfully, life has gotten much more interesting since then.

This is Pam’s first year at HTHI, but her 12th year teaching English composition with an emphasis on language issues like propaganda, doublespeak, censorship, political language and other fun stuff! She has taught at various colleges in California including Mesa College in San Diego, Palomar College in San Marcos, UC Davis, and Sacramento City College. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from San Diego State and her Masters degree from Sacramento State. Besides teaching, she stays very busy with her husband, three children (ages 17, 13, 8), one dog and 5 chickens.

Hello, I'm Doug Beacom.

I'm excited to join High Tech High International this year as a Multimedia teacher for the 11th grade. I'm a native Californian but have recently returned to San Diego after working in education and living in New Orleans, LA (2002-2004) Nagasaki, Japan (2004-2006) Phnom Penh/Siem Reap, Cambodia (2006-2007) and New York City ( 2007-2009). My experience in education ranges from literacy workshops to researching and launching a community library in rural Cambodia. I speak Japanese, understand Spanish (but have trouble speaking), and know a little Khmer and German.

I completed a BA in Creative Nonfiction Writing at the University of Redlands, in Redlands, CA, and recently completed my MA in Literacy, Language & Technology from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York. 

In addition to video production and photography, I'm an avid amateur guitarist/harmonica/drums/xylophone player and I can often be found riding my bicycle.  I live in OB with my wife and daughter. 

I was born and raised in Changchun, a beautiful city located 600 miles Northeast of Beijing, China. I grew up during China’s “Culture Revolution” and experienced the special events of that period. I had a wonderful childhood with my friends. We usually had half day school through my elementary school, which allowed us to play in the rest half day in all my elementary school years. After high school, I went to Chengdu to study Electrical Engineering in University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and I got my Bachelor’s degree of Electrical Engineering four years later. I worked as an Electrical Engineer for five years in Beijing after graduated. In 1995, I came to the U.S. and went to Electrical and Computer Engineering department to study Communication system and theory in University of California San Diego(UCSD).  I earned a Master’s degree of Electrical Engineering from UCSD. I have been teaching Mandarin at Berlitz Language School and Chinese school since 2007. My husband, our five year old daughter and three year old son, and I live in Rancho Bernardo. 

I enjoy traveling, reading, hiking, music and playing with my kids.

Rachel has taught 10th Grade Math/Chemistry in the High Tech Village since 2003. Prior to coming to San Diego, she taught at Emma Willard School, a girls\' boarding school in Upstate New York. Rachel graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Chemistry in 1998. After graduating, she worked for a management consulting firm and an internet company before transitioning into teaching in 2001.

Jill Renee Chiodini, a 32 year old, Virginia native, has called San Diego home for the past twelve years. Jill moved to San Diego in 1995 in order to attend San Diego State University. She received her BA in English with an emphasis in American Literature from SDSU in 1997. After going back to school for her teaching credential and Master’s Degree, Jill spent 4 years teaching English at Helix Charter High School.

In 2003, Jill decided to pursue a position at High Tech High teaching Freshmen Humanities. In HTH Jill felt like she had found the nirvana for teachers. Never before had she experienced such creative freedom in the classroom and she was thrilled! When presented with the opportunity to move to High Tech High International one year later, Jill jumped at the chance to incorporate international travel opportunities and curriculum into HTH’s flawless vision. Three years after HTHI’s opening, Jill is still happily teaching freshmen Humanities, coaching cross country and advising the yearbook staff. She has had the opportunity to travel with her students to many exciting places such as New York, Mexico and Peru. During the trip to New York, Jill’s students worked with Ball State University and The Baseball Hall of Fame to host a television special that was broadcast in classrooms across the country. Her students were also given the opportunity to trek far down into Baja, Mexico where they were able to actually touch a wild grey whale and her calf. This Spring Jill looks forward to adding another adventure to her repertoire as she accompanies her students to Peru in order to hike the trail to Machu Picchu.

In her free time, Jill enjoys training for ½ marathons, reading, traveling, going to the beach and spending time with her friends, her husband, Jason, and their beautiful daughter, Mia Grace. Jill also has a soft spot for animals and as a result has one dog, two cats, and one lizard.

Elika Dadsetan was born in Tehran, Iran during the "Revolution". When she was five months old, she visited family in Paris with her parents. During their stay there, the Iranian borders closed, and they were not allowed back into the country. Twenty nine years later, Elika has yet to return.

In the meantime, her family moved every few years until they landed in Southern California. Elika went to high school in the San Fernando Valley and college at UC San Diego where she majored in Political Science and Sociology with minors in Philosophy and Law & Society.

After college, she moved back to Los Angeles to go to law school, finishing in the Bay area at USF. While she was still in school, she lived abroad in Madrid for a few months and studied International Law, with an emphasis on European Economics.

Elika is very happy to be here at HTHI, and loves being around students and staff who love to learn and grow together! 

Fluent in Farsi, conversational in Spanish, and currently working on French, Elika enjoys international travel and leaves the country every chance she has. After a summer in Uganda and Europe, she feels ready to mellow out a bit in beautiful San Diego!

When Elika isn't working late at HTHI, she is coaching the HTHI Swim Team :), going out to see live music, rooting on the Red Sox, Spurs, and the Chargers, freelancing for several magazines, spending time with friends and family, and is training for the 2010 World Championship of Speed Texting... 

Brian Delgado supervised carpenters, painters and locksmiths at Merck after graduating with a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Brian spent two years as a project engineer/maintenance supervisor at Merck and Co. prior to spending six months traveling overland through sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and Israel.

Brian returned from his Africa travels and spent a year working at the San Diego Eye Bank, placing eye tissue for research and transplant purposes. This was followed by another eight-month trip abroad in South and Southeast Asia.

From the fall of 2001 through the spring of 2004, Brian worked as a Math and World Religions teacher at the Gary and Jerri-Anne Jacobs High Tech High School. His focus was on creating a project-based approach to mathematics that helped students understand mathematics as a precise language used by scientists and engineers.

In the fall of 2005, Brian moved over as part of the team that started High Tech High International. He has worked as the Dean of Students at HTHI since then. He is passionate about using any classroom experience as a tool to help students develop strong critical thinking skills, social awareness and lifelong interests.

On his free time, you will most likely find Brian hanging from a rock wall or riding a wave along the southern California coast.

After teaching 9th grade humanities at HTHI since the school was opened in 2004, Ian was named as the school's new Director in June 2009. Ian, who grew up near Nottingham in England, moved to the U.S. in 1991 to study and play division-one soccer at the University of Evansville in Indiana. Ian then went on to join the School of Education at the University of San Diego, where he earned a Master's degree in Counseling with an emphasis in College Student Counseling.

Shortly after graduate school, Ian accepted a position at Harlaxton College in England - an American study-abroad school - where he spent the next several years working as the dean of students. It was during this time that Ian was able to further his experience and passion for working in educational settings that both value and foster a rigorous approach to learning - while also providing a positive and healthy environment in which students are able to thrive and develop personally.

After moving back to San Diego, Ian joined the amazing team of teachers that opened High Tech High International. During the past five years teaching 9th grade humanities, Ian constantly strived to provide a classroom that balanced high expectations and rigor - with humor and a positive, caring culture.

As the Director of HTHI, Ian is extremely excited to help guide and support the school's wonderful team of teachers, students, and staff - and further the school's reputation as a leader high-school education.

In his spare time you are most likely to find Ian spending time with his wonderful wife Catherine - who teaches at HTMMA - and their amazing dog Mac, playing or watching any one of a number of sports, reading, or at the beach.

Jeremy began his life in Los Angeles. He spent his formative years in two coastal towns, La Jolla, California and Bolinas, a small town just north of San Francisco. Upon graduating from La Jolla High he moved back north to attend UC Santa Cruz.

With his mind set on studying fine art he chose to transfer to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in his junior year. Deciding that winters in Santa Cruz were friendlier and that being in a school full of pretentious artists added to an already chilly winter, he transferred back to UCSC to complete his senior year and graduate with a BA in Fine Art. A couple years later he went to grad school in Oakland, CA and received an MFA from the California College of Art.

Jeremy moved to the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and found a job in a mural painting studio. He worked full-time for a couple of years painting large scale murals, mostly for hotels and casino’s such as; Caesar’s Palace, the MGM Grand, Harrah’s, and Disney to name a few. He then left San Francisco to pursue an independent art career in San Diego. He found reasonable success, exhibiting in galleries and selling paintings to residences and corporate businesses such as; Nokia, Merck Pharmaceuticals, the Bellagio and Fairmont Hotels, City National Bank…the list goes on.

In 2003 he joined forces with a few friends to open the Cassius King Gallery in the Gaslamp District, downtown, San Diego. This hip, underground venue lasted nearly two years and showed great up and coming artists and bands from around the nation. Since then Jeremy has found comfort teaching with the wonderful people of HTHI. All the while he continues to paint, play music, travel and surf.

In 2005, Colleen moved to San Diego just to work at High Tech High. She'd been living up in the central Sierra Nevada mountains, and although she loved being close to the forest and the rocks, she was searching for a teaching position in a non-traditional school that would allow her to express her creativity as a teacher.

Colleen spent most of her childhood in Rhode Island. From there she attended Boston College to earn a BA in psychology. But It wasn’t until the summer after graduation when she went on a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course and spent a month backpacking and climbing in Wyoming that Colleen realized her path--to help others find their connection and curiosity for the natural world.

Since then Colleen has earned a masters degree in environmental science/education from Prescott College and lived, learned and worked in various locations (Texas, Arizona, Mexico, England/Schumacher College, Santa Barbara, Calaveras County…..). She's led backpacking trips for teens, started her own catering company, worked on organic farms, waited tables, practiced and taught yoga, taught at nature centers, science camps and in class rooms  and…. FINALLY, decided to  get a job with health insurance and a stable salary.

Colleen believes that education should be inquiry and project-based while rooted in rigorous content that is meaningful to students’ lives. She is  an advocate of interdisciplinary education because the ‘real world’ is not divided into disciplines—rather it is a beautiful mess of complexity and interrelationships.

Colleen loves learning new things, yoga, cooking, gardening, reading, writing, mountain biking, rock climbing….and relaxing. She lives with her husband Jason, baby Finn and dog, Odin (who’s been her companion for 13 1/2 years).

Will is a native New Yorker, who spent his adolescent years running around Albany trying to survive 13 years of Military school. After high school, Will split town and went to Virginia to study Philosophy and East Asian culture deep in the Shenandoah Valley at Washington and Lee University. After college Will wandered around New York, Colorado, and spent several years in New Mexico contemplating the meaning of life and the implications of all his philosophical studies. While living in Santa Fe Will got a job teaching Anatomy and Physiology to adults at a school and was quickly hooked on teaching. Will then moved to San Diego to pursue a degree in Biology and a teaching credential. While studying for his Master’s degree in education Will became very interested in methodologies that not only support learning but also help students develop thinking skills. Will finished his Master’s degree in 2004 after writing his final thesis on Critical thinking in education. After this, Will got jobs teaching Biology and physical science and enjoyed the experiences well enough, but was not really satisfied with the work. So Will decided to go back to school, this time to pursue a Math degree, and as luck would have it he ran into a High Tech High teacher who encouraged him to apply and he got the job. Will now teaches 11th and 12th grade Math at High Tech International and is currently having an exceptional amount of fun exploring the joys of math with his wonderful if sometimes reluctant students. Aside from teaching Will enjoys walking the beaches, contemplating existence, doing math proofs, playing guitar, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and hanging out with friends.

I was born on a blustery Tuesday morning in a hospital located in the middle of an iced over Virginia quagmire. From a swamp, life can only go up, which thankfully it has. After a happy childhood of not fitting in, I found myself wandering various mountain sides and shorelines, eventually arriving in the hustle and bustle of San Diego.

With an academic background in Marine Science, I followed the predictable career path as that of a music teacher. I absolutely love teaching music and everything about music. My favorite musical element these days is the analysis and use of the subtleties used in creating ‘musical excellence’…the details of that certain song that touches you to the core. Great stuff. When not teaching, I enjoy reading whatever ends up on my living room table, performing jazz and bluegrass music, backpacking abroad, riding my bicycle and playing on the wet side of that area where the oceans meet land.

 

 

 

Teaching science is my passion though I've only been doing it in a school setting for 2 years now. After finishing my formal education 25 years ago (my last degree was a Ph.D. in chemical physics from UCSD), I've developed and applied computer simulations of chemistry both to design new molecules and to teach fundamental chemical principles. I am always looking for new ways to engage my students in science and help them discover the underlying order in the universe and in life. My wife of 32 years and I have raised 6 children to adulthood which at one time I thought qualified me to teach teenagers. I've sinced learned 6 doesn't begin to represent the diversity of minds in a high school classroom which I find both stimulating and exhilirating (and occasionally, exhausting). Besides my professional interests, I make time to play golf, tennis, snowboard, and in warm tropical waters, scuba dive. My picture is from a hike in the Narrows of Zion National Park my wife and I did last summer.

Many moons ago, in a land that time forgot...who am I kidding!! Having just received my Bachelor of Arts in Applied Physics at San Diego State University, I began my career as educator in the land of the rising sun, Akita Japan. After a year of challenging Sumo Wrestlers to sushi eating contests, I returned to the states with new perspectives about myself and our educational system. For seven years I taught all things math, science & advisory at The Preuss School UCSD. During this time I was very active in and out of school working to improve math & science pedagogy across our nation. Locally I was involved in the implementation and development of the Interactions in Physical Science (f.k.a. C.I.P.S.) curriculum. As a MSSELI Fellow I participated in an intensive year long professional development program focused on science content, leadership strategies, and collaboration with San Diego area public and private scientific institutions. In my free time, I worked closely with the San Diego Science Alliance to develop robotics programs throughout San Diego County and served as emcee for both local and national Botball Robotics tournaments. Throughout all of these phenomenally rewarding and challenging experiences, I was most proud of guiding my groups of advisees, many of whom I served for seven years, towards a remarkable 94% acceptance rate (4 year college or universities)!

The past year I had the enviable opportunity to join the staff here at HTHI as a teacher of Engineering/Robotics/Culinary Arts/Rock Climbing and much, much more. Currently I am focused largely on forging stronger connections between HTHI and USD, UCSD, & SDSU, establishing a greater sense of community for all 9th graders, as well as supporting all of the tremendous efforts of those who help to make our school one of the preeminent institutions for learning in our nation!

 I recently moved to San Diego from the mountains of Blacksburg, Virginia.  At heart though, I am a Massachusetts native and carried some “sand in my shoes” from Cape Cod on the journey to California. I have a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from UMass, a Masters degree in Technology Education from Virginia Tech and am currently in the final stages of defending my doctoral dissertation in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech.  I am passionate about engineering design, creativity and sustainable design solutions.

Before coming to High Tech High International, I taught a Freshman Engineering class at Virginia Tech.  For me as a teacher, I hope to inspire all students to appreciate and develop their technical problem-solving skills.  I believe we all are engineers.  Given the nature of our technology rich lives, we all need to be creative problem-solvers on a daily basis.  My goal as an engineering instructor is to build students’ confidence in their technological design and problem-solving abilities.

In my free time, you can find me on a beach (of course!) with my two wonderful dogs, Forrest and Nelly

Natasha Nace was born and raised in San Diego and grew up in a Mexican-American family.   She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Television, Film & New Media from San Diego State University and is currently finishing her Masters Degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Globalization.  Natasha has been involved with several non-profits including Young Audiences, International Rescue Committee, and USD's Institute for Peace & Justice.

Currently Natasha keeps busy with her son Isaac who is 9 years old.  In her free time Natasha enjoys reading, music, cooking, and yoga.  She also has fun traveling, gardening, and spending time with friends and family.

Nicole Pack grew up in Chico, CA and has slowly continued to move south. Nicole graduated with a degree in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. While at Cal Poly Nicole also had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad in Thailand, where she studied international business and art. Nicole then experienced two brief experiences as an industrial engineer in San Jose and Irvine, CA. Upon graduating from Cal Poly, Nicole moved to Huntington Beach to volunteer and eventually work for a small non-profit called the Free Wheelchair Mission. It was during this time that she decided to pursue teaching � a career that would allow her the opportunity to help others while still pursuing her interests in mathematics, engineering, and design. She attended USC for her Master of Arts in Teaching and credential in mathematics while gaining teaching experience in Santa Ana and Torrance.

This year is Nicole�s third year at HTHI and in San Diego, and she couldn�t have landed in a better place. She loves being a part of the amazing community of students and teachers and to bring her passions and interests into the classroom. Outside of teaching, Nicole enjoys spending her time exploring the city and spending time with her sister and friends. She is also having fun watching the Chargers and Padres in addition to the Trojans. Nicole continues to volunteer for the Free Wheelchair Mission and will train for her third � marathon (Run for Mobility) with them this year!

Jen graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education in December of 2000 with a B.S. in Education and certification in Secondary English Education. From there, she picked up a job substitute teaching for the Madison and Middleton Public School Districts. She then taught at a boarding school in Northcentral Arizona for a year. Living 20 feet away from the girls\' dormitories on an operational ranch complete with rattlesnakes in the dorms and tarantulas in the parking lot was exactly what she expected it to be: much warmer than Wisconsin and different than anything she\'d ever experienced.

After deciding to live somewhere a little more urban than the middle of the desert, she interviewed for a teaching position at High Tech High. While she was interviewing, her husband, Adam, drove around San Diego and discovered Sunset Cliffs. That was all it took to realize this was the place they wanted to call home. She is now in her eighth (yikes!) year teaching for High Tech High schools. Six years ago, she left High Tech High to become a founding faculty member of High Tech High International.

Jen earned her Master\'s Degree in Curriculum Design through UCSD in 2006. Her thesis was on encouraging perseverance in the project-based learning classroom. In addition, she recently completed her first year working toward her Ed.D in Education at UCSD, but decided to put those plans on hold after her first child, Henry, was born in March of 2008. She is currently working on finding just the right work-life balance and she is loving motherhood.

Ross was born near the central coast of California in a quaint town called Pismo Beach. As he grew older, he attended his local high school in Arroyo Grande, which happened to be five miles south of Pismo. As the years progressed, Ross seemed unable to resist the Southern California pull and eventually entered into college at the University of Santa Barbara, another one hundred miles south. After four years, Ross came out of the university with three majors, one in English, one in Spanish and a last in Comparative Literature. Yet Ross returned to his school the next fall, this time as a graduate. One year later he left Santa Barbara for good after receiving his Masters in Education and his teaching credential.

Clearly, at this point in Ross' life, he saw that the farther south one travels, the better. Which is why, without surprise, his next journey led him to High Tech High in San Diego, another few hundred miles south. While he is sure that he can bring students many creative and fresh approaches to real world applications through his teaching, he worries about one thing: graphs have been drawn up plotting Ross' southern migration and extensive research shows that with his current rate of travel, he will end up in Mazatlan, Mexico within seven years. But until then, Ross plans to inspire and encourage students by personalizing his curriculum around not only their life, but by matching the curriculum up with the world of today and the skills needed to compete in it.

Yet when Ross isn't busy enlightening young minds, he finds time to play piano, read books, and surf badly. He also claims to have invented the "U-Turn" blinker, but as of yet, cannot find a buyer. He believes reading is cool...really.

I graduated from UCSD with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology (with special emphasis on Ecology, Behavior and Evolution) and a minor in Psychology. I feel fortunate to have applied my studies of Biology, through Ecological education, all over the globe including the South Pacific, Europe, Mexico, and Central America. I will be sharing many of these experiences with students throughout the year and demonstrating the many applications of this exciting area of study. Exploring biology with students is one of my strongest passions and project-based learning is fundamental to my teaching philosophy.

Here are just some tidbits about who I am and what I have done. I completed my undergrad education right here in San Diego at the University of California where I received a BA in History. During my undergrad studies I also taught SAT prep classes at Elite. Following UCSD, I continued on at the University of San Diego where I was awarded a Masters in Education. I\'m very excited to be joining the teaching staff here at High Tech High International. The teaching philosophies that exist at this school parallels mine, which as a teacher is extremely essential to a positive and conducive learning environment.
  On a more personal level, some of my favorite things to do when I have free time include reading historical and dystopian novels, watching way too many episodes of House and CSI ( Las Vegas and New York only!!), and playing with my new puppy, Taz - a Shepard Hound mix.

P.S.  Yes, my last name is Sith but unfortunately I have no association to the dark lord from Star Wars!

Kelly Wilson's passion for creating small school environments focused on project-based learning was sparked when she completed her M.A. in Education at Stanford University. In her first year of teaching, she had the exciting opportunity to help establish a small charter school for low-income students in East Palo Alto.  Through that experience she found that personalized learning environments, where students are known well by adults and are asked to solve meaningful, real world problems, have a dramatic effect on student engagement and performance.

She was excited to be able to continue this work at High Tech High as a math/physics teacher when she relocated to San Diego in 2002, the town of her alma mater, UCSD.   Teaching at High Tech High inspired Kelly to integrate more technology into her projects, including having students design and program robots, create video games that modeled the laws of physics, invent electronic products to market to the public and produce original documentaries.  After teaching at HTH for 2 years, Kelly helped open High Tech High International with an exceptional team of teachers from HTH and was Director for 5 years.   Having lived abroad in both Costa Rica and New Zealand, Kelly enjoyed having the opportunity to immerse students in new cultural experiences through the Immersion Program, and led trips with students to Costa Rica, Tanzania and Spain.

Going back to her roots, Kelly is excited this year to be working more closely with students and further developing her craft.  She will be directing and co-teaching in the School Leadership M.Ed. Program in our Graduate School of Education, continuing to co-teach a Methods course in the HTH Credential Program and teaching a 9th grade exploratory on Media Literacy and Production at High Tech High International.  In her "free" time, Kelly enjoys yoga, dance, hiking, snowboarding and spending precious time with friends and family

Erin Wyatt was born and raised in San Diego. She completed her BA in English at the University of Idaho where she was on a four year athletic scholarship for tennis. After graduating from the U of I, Erin returned to San Diego to pursue a career in education. She has been teaching for 14 years in public schools.  Erin recently completed her MA in Educational Leadership at San Diego State University.  In her free time, Erin enjoys hanging out  in Ocean Beach with her husband and three year old daughter.