February 22, 2018
Rachel Katar is a member of the Mounds Park Academy Class of 2002.
What are you currently doing, professionally and/or personally?
My husband and I are expecting our first baby in April. I am a middle school science teacher and dorm parent for high schoolers at The Masters School in New York. My favorite part of my job is seeing students set up their own experiments to test ideas and learn more about how the world works.
How did you get there? Where did you attend college? Are there key experiences or relationships that have inspired you?
I took a circuitous route to become a teacher. My mother was a band director in the Roseville schools, my father taught at the University of Minnesota Medical School on occasion, and both my grandmother and my grandfather were teachers. So, naturally, I did not want to become a teacher. When I told my grandmother what I was doing for work though, she replied, “That sounds a lot like teaching to me….” During my college years at Lawrence University and St. Olaf College, I volunteered for Biology Club to teach the water cycle to elementary students. After graduating, I worked at the Science Museum of Minnesota teaching cell biology principles to high school students, so they could in turn teach over 50,000 museum visitors yearly. I then worked at the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities to manage Youth in Government, Leadership Team, and the Achievers college readiness programs. At Saint Paul Public Schools Community Education, I doubled the science and music class offerings for preschool through high school age students. I even saw Mr. Thompson (MPA faculty member) while planting native plants with students along the Keller Lake shoreline.
While working, I pursued my Master of Arts in Education: Natural Science and Environmental Education, at Hamline University. Afterward, I started working at Hamline University where I increased prospective student visits, added middle school student visit opportunities, and connected high school students with professors. Simultaneously, I worked with Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies to start Harmony, a string music program on the West Side of Saint Paul for elementary students. My husband and I had an opportunity to move to New York so he could pursue a career as an Associate Director of Admission and I could teach middle school science at The Masters School.
How did your Mounds Park Academy experience prepare you for your life today? How did Mounds Park Academy help you dream big and do right?
MPA helped prepare me first by valuing me as an individual, providing me with excellent writing skills, immersing me in the first laptop program, and offering opportunities in the arts and sports after school. I continue to play cello today, sometimes for paid events, as well as trumpet (thanks for the Concert Director’s Award, Ms. Wantock!). I also photograph weddings and events (thanks Ms. Rossbach!), do ceramics whenever I can (Ms. Sonka, you are the best!), and say yes to athletic opportunities like faculty/staff softball games (miss you guys, Coaches Scinto and Reimers!). I find that my technology tools often set me ahead in my career and graduate work. My writing is also something that supervisors frequently comment on as being high quality and engaging. I constantly look for ways to engage my students in global thinking (we are the change we want to see in the world, Ms. Conway) and creative problem solving (bridge building project and egg drop to the rescue, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Shapiro). In addition, I was part of the MPA Alumni Board and earned the MPA Alumni grant to develop a Teens Talk Science podcast. I also maintain friendships with fellow MPA alumni all these years later.
What’s next? Any aspirations—personal or professional—that you’d like to share?
My aspirations include starting a family (coming soon, this April!), publishing a book (draft is done, we’ll see what happens next!), voice acting for a silly cartoon character (I can dream, can’t I?), and having the opportunity to teach at MPA.
Rachel’s story is part of a new series called The Year of 100 Stories, launched by the Mounds Park Academy Alumni Association in January 2018. All alumni are warmly invited to tell their story! Email alumni@moundsparkacademy.org for more information.
