Throughout the four weeks U-High was open to students, you may have seen a few new faces around the school.

The counseling office has welcomed Carrie Hoffman who is starting her twelfth year as a school counselor. Though she has taken the role of counseling students with the last names A-K, she hopes to meet every student among the school. 

Hoffman has a major in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. Straight out of college she went into social work; however, she found that she felt better suited for a job within a school environment. 

 “I wanted to come to a position where I felt like I could be more proactive in my approach as a counselor rather than reactive,” Hoffman said.

She has been working in a school environment for a dozen years. Starting in Pekin, Illinois at Edison Junior High. Two years later, she transitioned to Normal West and developed many relationships with students as well as their families for over nine years. 

“A lot of students here at U-High kind of remind me of the students that I worked with at Normal West with the student council, and they were some of my favorite students.” Hoffman said.

Hoffman hopes to build relationships with all students in the building. 

“I’m hoping to make the counseling office a place where students can just kind of pop in and check in,” Hoffman said. “A place where students feel welcome and can get the help they need.” 

New assistant principal Michael Shanley also found the population appealing as he made the decision to transition from Bloomington High School to U-High.

 “I wanted to work with a lot of really smart students and staff,”  Shanley said. 

Though interactions have been limited, Shanley said his favorite part about U-High has been the students. 

“The way students participate in education is different from a lot of places I’ve been and I’m really just impressed,” Shanley said. 

Shanley has been working in education for over fourteen years. Before working in Bloomington-Normal, he previously worked as a history teacher and an assistant principal in Chicago. 

The world language department has welcomed Julia Martin, who is teaching all four levels of French at U-High as well as Metcalf. Martin graduated from ISU in May of 2020, after she completed her clinicals here and her student teaching at Bloomington High School. As she was offered the job in May, she said she was very excited to be able to teach students she had previously worked with. 

Martin comes from a family of teachers and was influenced by their love for teaching. As a child, she spent her summers at the school her mother worked at and loved helping set up her classroom. From then on, she knew she wanted to be involved in education. She was inspired to teach French by her French instructor as well as spending a year in France during college. 

Martin hopes to bring a sense of community to the world language department. She loves the way that students can grow and learn within the same group of students over the years. 

“I want to bring a support system in the high school classrooms and I want them to feel like there is a trust and community within the world language students,” Martin said.