Science teacher Catherine Schmidt is finishing a long career of science education at Clover Hill. She will leave behind her chemistry, anatomy, and biology classes this summer to pursue a less hectic life, now that she’s satisfied with the work she’s done here. While it may be time for her to move on, Schmidt has an authentic passion for teaching science. She believes that she succeeded in showing her students what makes it worthwhile.

“I love being able to explain stuff to my students,” she said. “I love science, so I love teaching anatomy, and I love the human body, so those were really exciting for me to talk about … I feel like I have made a difference in some students’ lives, as far as if that student enjoyed science, and I got some students to think about science as something to do afterwards,” she said.

Teaching is not an easy task. Schmidt had to learn to adapt to an endlessly chaotic environment throughout her career and keep finding new ways to help her students explore science. She has a message about this to share with the next generation of teachers. 

“Don’t take it personally,” Schmidt said. “I am my worst critic. Try not to be your worst critic, everybody’s gonna be your worst critic. It’s not like I teach for a week and I go ‘Oh, I’m having a great time and everything went smoothly,’ no, I’m constantly reevaluating everything I did in the classroom, usually on a daily basis. It’s so hard for a first year or second year teacher, it’s a lot. And have some outside time, don’t go home and just do work. Everyone needs a break.”

In fact, Schmidt never expected her career to go the way it did. 

“I never even planned on being a bio major,” Schmidt said. “I thought I was gonna be in fashion, fashion marketing. It was the first class that I took in college that was a challenge. [My professor] said look to your left, and look to your right, and probably by the end of the year those two people are gonna be gone.”

She carried that attitude with her beyond college and into her AP Biology class. 

“I love the level at which I teach,” Schmidt said. “It’s not just like C-level bio where you learn parts of the cell, you really learn a lot of new stuff that’s going on.”

She hopes that students will continue learning and exploring the world through their time at Clover Hill, even after she leaves.

“When you’re in here, take advantage of everything, not just the education but the social aspect of it as well,” Schmidt said. “Be nice to people, be respectful as well. Everybody’s so different.”

Schmidt loves teaching science, and she loves her students, too much to leave entirely. She plans on returning to Clover Hill in the future as a substitute teacher. 

“I feel like being with you all, young people, keeps you young,” Schmidt said, “and I’m gonna miss that.”