University

Ms. Pollack:

Ms. Pollack, also known as Coach P, is one of the English teachers and softball coaches at PHU.

Ms. Pollack voluntarily spends three hours a day coaching softball. After spending time at the field, she loves to spend her free time binge watching Netflix hit series such as

Bloodlines and The 100.

Every spring break, Ms. Pollack loves to vacation in sunny Arizona to see her family. “I love seeing my little nephew. He’s so cute!” Pollack said.

Ms. Pollack is getting married in stunning Italy sometime next summer.

Mr. Schaefer:

Mr. Schaefer, also known as Coach Schaefer, is a cross country coach, track and field coach, HOPE (Health Occupation through Physical Education) teacher, and Care and Preventions teacher.

If Mr. Schaefer isn’t tied up in his room or on the field, you’ll find him doing hot yoga or taking trips on his motorcycle throughout town.

He and his wife also like traveling a lot. “Since it’s my wife’s and my 30th anniversary, we were trying to go to Ireland,” Schaefer said.

Back when Coach Schaefer was in school, his favorite subject was Physical Education

because he loved to do sports and to be active. He sure choose the right career for his

personality.

IB

Mrs. Dirscherl:

Along with teaching ninth graders about the importance of making goals, developing good study skills, and learning to write “like a college student,” she is also a mother and has been a librarian in previous years. “As a reference librarian I helped people answer the questions all day, which was very fun. It was like playing a never ending trivial pursuit game,” she said. And even before she herself left high school she spent a summer working “in a grocery store all until [she] dropped a giant bottle of olives all over the floor. [She] quit right after that,” Mrs Dirscherl remembered.

Mr. Tharin:

Mr. Tharin doesn’t only teach English to freshmen and juniors. Before coming to PHU, he was in the Peace Corps, believe it or not. He spent his time as “a small business volunteer in the coffee cooperative, so [he] learned a lot about coffee production and how to run a business,” he explained. What he was taught from the experience didn’t end there, as he also learned two languages: Spanish and Kekchi. Finally, what may be most incredible is that Mr. Tharin met his wife while volunteering too. They both now live in the US together.

Medical

Mrs. Zuelke:

• What is your strangest story about nursing?

“I was working with a woman in prenatal care and she had just delivered her baby. After she had her baby, she said, ‘Oh, I’m so glad he’s not a monster!’ She had watched horror movies and it was like an old wives’ tale in her neighborhood that said your baby would look like whatever monster you saw when you were pregnant. She spent the whole second half of her pregnancy worried about her baby looking like a monster. She was really, truly relieved when she gave birth and found that it looked normal. Interestingly enough, the baby was born with six fingers.”

Mr. Dahl:

• What is your favorite movie?

“This is a really hard question. Alright, I’m going to have to go with the movie Apocalypse Now. It was the first classic movie that I saw. I was nine. I’ve watched it literally five hundred times since then. I still get something out of it every time. Then again, Anchorman is also a really good movie.”