By Emma Kay and Madison Anisman

What is one thing most people don’t know about you?

“I lived in Italy and California for a little while.”

If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be?

“This is my fourth career. I was a medical bio chemist going out of university. Then, I was a nutritionist and a researcher at the University of Toronto. I worked for the pharmaceutical industry and then I became a teacher. So, if I wasn’t a teacher I’d probably be one of those.”

Why did you decide to become a teacher?

“The job that I was doing was too repetitive, it was the same everyday. I guess I was looking for something a bit more exciting and I got it! No two days are the same as a teacher.”

Why a high school teacher?

“I could never teach younger kids, I don’t relate that well to them. With the high school kids its more about a subject area where you can actually share some of your knowledge and passion.”

Overall, did you enjoy high school?

“I loved high school! Part of it I did in Serbia and I did the final year in California.”

What was it like living in California?

“I loved it because of the weather, it was really nice. You could go to the beach everyday after school, which is what we did. It was really cool that way.”

What were your favourite subjects in high school?

“My favourite subject was actually literature. I also enjoyed languages a lot. I was kind of good at sciences and decided to go into it, but that wasn’t my passion in high school. My genuine interest in science came much later to me, after university actually.”

What is something teenagers do that you find funny?

“I find many of the social interactions really funny: the way kids interact with one another both in terms of trying to verbalize themselves or just their social media interactions.”

Is there any advice you can give to us students?

“Enjoy it more. Life goes on and there’s so many opportunities later. I think you guys spend too much time stressing over life when you should just sort of be enjoying it because it really is all good. There are people obviously who have real problems, but marks and stuff like that are not problems. Enjoy life because you are so young, there are so many places to go and so many great things to do.”