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A twenty-three year old Maui High School teacher manages to pursue her Master's degree and work full-time, even through a pandemic. How does she do it? "I'm just happy and grateful that I have a job still," says Ms. Gima, the culinary teacher at Maui High.
The young teacher has been working at Maui High School for almost three years while attending graduate school. Ms. Gima was hired in 2018, just after she had earned her undergraduate degree in Applied Business and Information Technology. "Work came sooner than I expected. I got this job right after college, even though that wasn't technically the plan," she says. The original plan was to start off substitute teaching while earning her teaching license through Alternative Certification for CTE Licensure Program. There being a teacher shortage, however, she was brought on as an emergency hire as soon as she earned her bachelor degree.
The narrow age gap between Ms. Gima and her students proved difficult since she had graduated from the same high school just four year earlier. "I think I was struggling a little bit my first couple of years. Even now, because some of my students aren't very far in age from me," she explains. Ms. Gima worried that her age would affect her classroom management but mentions that it gets easier with experience. With both of her parents also teaching at Maui High, Ms. Gima always knew she would be a teacher.
Teachers across the globe struggle with the challenges of teaching virtually. Adapting to distance learning was not much of a struggle for Ms. Gima. “A lot of my undergrad and my entire Master’s program is online, so I am used to it, and I'm a pretty independent learner too. So I like learning online, and I like teaching online.” She only has a semester left in her Master’s program and is not thinking about quitting at all.
With all of the pressures that surely come with being a young teacher and a graduate student during these times, she hasn't looked back and continues to work towards her goal. Her hard work teaching and navigating her Master’s program amid the pandemic is admirable. “Balancing school, a career, and my personal life, I wouldn’t call it a ‘struggle,’ but you have to make sacrifices when you have multiple commitments,” she says thoughtfully.