Amy Gervais
Pronouns: She/Her
College: University of Oregon, Southern Oregon University, Oregon State University-Cascades
Before Grant: Skyline K-8, Kamalii Elementary School, Jefferson County Middle School
Position: Counselor
Fifteen-year-old Amy Gervais stares down at her essay, an A+ scrawled on it in large black letters. Emotion swells in her chest as she reads her teacher’s words: “Have you ever thought about being a defense attorney?”
Gervais didn’t become a lawyer, but she never forgot that feeling of unconditional adult support. Today, she dedicates much of her time as a high school counselor to helping kids access their potential by looking toward the future. “I have the ability to see the best in people and fight for them, and even though I don’t do that as an attorney, I do that as a school counselor every day, see the best in my students and fight for them. And the fact that someone could recognize that in me made me feel really special,” says Gervais.
Since high school, Gervais knew that she wanted to help people but was unsure how to apply this drive to a career. It was while working at an orthodontic office that Gervais found her true passion: working with teenagers. She looked forward to greeting them during appointments and talking to them about their hopes and dreams.
“What I love about teens is, kind of, their just total belief that they can change the world,” she says. Gervais came to realize that her experiences, not only in high school but also as the first person in her family to graduate from college, would allow her to make an impact on teenagers. Gervais redirected her career and enrolled in graduate school where she became a school counselor, turning her passion into a profession.
As a counselor, Gervais worked in middle schools throughout the U.S. before moving back to Oregon, where she was born. Gervais settled her family in Portland in 2015, seeking a place to further her career where her children would receive a quality education.
After years spent as a counselor in elementary and middle schools, Gervais is looking forward to working with teenagers again at Grant. “I’m really excited to get to do more career and college work with students,” she says. “One of the things that fuels me is kind of, helping students identify, find a vision for their future, what is it that they see their life looking like?”
—written by Sadie Sack
Edith Guadalupe Guitron
Pronouns: She/Her
College: Portland State, Lewis and Clark
Before Grant: Counselor at Harrison Park K-8 and Portland Public School Summer Scholars Program: Pre-school teacher
Position: Counselor
Edith Guadalupe Guitron always pictured herself working in education, but her road to high school counseling was not a clear path. When Guitron was a teenager attending Rex Putnam High School, she was a teacher aide for the counseling office. “I got to see what that was like and it always kind of fascinated me,” she says.
Torn between social work and becoming an Early Child Life Specialist during college, she applied to graduate school on a whim, leaving it up to fate. After she got in, Guitron began to work more with school-aged children as a preschool teacher and a bilingual assistant. One thing Guitron says has helped her succeed is her supportive family, full of role models like her father. “My dad is one of the most successful people I know … it shows how if somebody is driven enough, it could really push them,” she says.
For the last few years, she has worked as a school counselor at Harrison Park K-8, a job she says was challenging but rewarding. She says that there were “a lot of needs that I wish we could have helped out, but sometimes just being someone to support students… is all you can do.” Working at Harrison Park and in the PPS Summer Scholars Program has reinforced her position as a role model, especially for struggling kids who do not have good role models at home.
Guitron dreams of working at her old high school, Rex Putnam. She also hopes to be part of a systemic change in the education system. “I think that we need to consider more looking at where students are coming from,” she says. “And trying to support students who historically have had stuff that’s damaged their families and their family trees.” She hopes that being part of a support system will allow her to give them tools to be successful, rather than supporting just one type of learning.
Guitron will be one of six school counselors at Grant, specifically helping the freshman class with their transition to high school. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to be able to be advocating for all students from all backgrounds. To make sure that we’re not forgetting anyone and just make sure that everyone is being heard,” she says.
—written by Evelyn Kent
Dr. Martin Douglass
Pronouns: He/Him
College: Community College of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, Concordia University
Before Grant: CTE teacher and testing coordinator at Wilson
Position: CTE Digital Design
Dr. Martin Douglass has worn many hats throughout his career. His passion for Career and Technical Education (CTE) has been the culmination of years of education and experience in design. Douglass, who will be splitting his time between Grant and Cleveland High School this coming school year, is excited to “help expose students to different opportunities in media,” and to “open their eyes up to different ways of creating digitally and having them express themselves through visual digital content,” he says.
Douglass spent his early childhood in Reading, Mass., before moving to Philadelphia at the age of 9, where he attended a performing arts school. Upon graduating, he joined the military. Following completion of his service, Douglass attended San Francisco Community College to study digital arts, eventually continuing to receive a master’s degree from San Francisco State University.
After his education in San Francisco, Douglass worked in a wide variety of media groups, including Sega and Ubisoft (video game developers), Mountain Travel Sobek (an adventure travel company) and multiple other major design companies.
After the financial crisis of 2008, Douglass switched paths. “My college instructors really, really inspired me to want to somehow give back in teaching, and I first started doing volunteer work with different organizations in San Francisco, and then finally decided to get my CTE certification so I could teach as a CTE teacher,” he says. Douglass left San Francisco, moving to Portland when a job opportunity opened up. Here, he completed a second master’s degree in CTE, and this past year finished a doctorate in education.
Douglass believes that his past has helped him become a better teacher, saying that he has had “a lot of different hands-on experiences that I can bring into the classroom, that I think is really beneficial for career and technical education.” Douglass is coming to Grant from Wilson High School, where he was a CTE teacher and testing coordinator.
Though he is not sure what specific CTE classes he will be teaching at Grant, he knows that it will be design related, likely in animation. He hopes that his teaching will help inspire students to seek different paths. “I think CTE at the high school level really opens up different … industry experiences for students while in high school,” he says. “So I really believe that CTE helps prepare that student for the industry and for continuing education.”
—written by Peter Sallinger
Hannah Fisher
Pronouns: She/Her
College: Northwestern University, Lewis and Clark University
Before Grant: Theatre director, Tutor, Clackamas High School
Position: World Literature
Hannah Fisher discovered her love for teaching world literature through a completely different passion: theatre. Before moving to Portland, Fisher worked as a theatre director in Chicago pursuing her penchant for the performing arts.
Fisher was working mostly paycheck to paycheck and decided that tutoring would best suit her as a second job to earn a steadier income. “I started taking more and more hours doing tutoring because I just enjoyed the process of getting to know students and helping them overcome the specific barriers that they were experiencing with learning,” she says.
Along with tutoring, she had other passions to explore. She left Chicago and moved to the Pacific Northwest to pursue a master’s degree and get in touch with nature. Fisher’s degree led her to Grant High School, where she says that she is looking forward to incorporating elements of theatre into her curriculum at Grant. “I believe that play is an extremely important part of developing our creative thinking skills,” she says.
She plans to encourage students to be autonomous and to offer them a choice in what they would like to learn. Fisher believes she has a different outlook from the teachers she had growing up because she’s closer in age to her students. She hopes they see her as a mentor that also enjoys participating in the curriculum with them. “I think another part of my experience growing up was that all of my teachers were many, many decades older than me, so I had trouble seeing them and seeing a future for myself in them,” she says.
Fisher is excited to see Grant’s theatre productions, and may even want to become involved in the drama program herself one day. However, she says that her primary focus, for now, is to develop a rigorous curriculum that all of her students can enjoy. “I will certainly be doing a lot of learning myself this year, so if I can demonstrate a positive approach to making mistakes, to discovering what it is I don’t know, to apologizing or thanking students for helping me lead the classroom,” she says. “I think all of those things are positive experiences for my students. It doesn’t have to be that I have all the answers,” she says.
—written by Ruby Patrick
