Social studies teacher Kayla Young moved from her role as a student teacher to a  part-time teaching position this semester. 

During her student teaching first quarter, Young was at Webster Middle School with social studies teacher Mike Johnson. During the second quarter, she taught in social studies teacher Matt Pointinger’s Global Studies and U.S. History classes. 

Although she loves teaching at the high school, Young admits she does prefer teaching eighth graders because “there was always a smile in the room.” 

Young graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran College with a double major in Broadfield Social Studies and Education and minors in History and Government.

She said her three greatest influences on her teaching career were her mom, her English teacher and her soccer coach, who was also her social studies teacher.

Since her mom taught elementary school, Young said she remembers seeing how much planning it took her mom to organize all the different subjects she had to teach each day. This influenced her to make the decision to teach upper level education. Young said, “I always knew I wanted to teach older kids.”

Young grew up in Kenosha and has one older brother, Adam. They have always had a very tight-knit relationship, according to Young. They would, and still, spend a lot of time hanging out. “We both grew up loving volleyball,” she said. 

In high school, Young was on the volleyball, soccer and basketball teams. Her favorite sport to play was soccer. She even played on her college’s soccer team as a goalie for one year. 

In addition to teaching social studies, Young is substituting for English teacher Heather Vande Sande while she is on leave, recovering from foot surgery.