By Mikayla Weiss, Sports Editor
Mr. Austin Reaker has been teaching at Moreau Catholic High School for 7 years. He teaches honors biology, anatomy, and Spanish. Here, we get to learn a little bit more about his life with an exclusive interview.
Mikayla Weiss (MW): How long have you been teaching?
Austin Reaker (AR): I have been teaching all together for nine years. I taught at Moreau Catholic for two years. Then I taught high school English in Chile for two years and then returned back to Moreau.
MW: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
AR: I wanted to be in the medical field. I got hurt a lot, so I spent a lot of time in hospitals. The main plan was to be a doctor of some sort, and in college it turned into me wanting to be a pediatric oncologist. Nearing the end of my college years is when it started to change into teaching.
MW: Where did you grow up? How did you end up here?
AR: I grew up in Cincinnati Ohio. I went to Saint Louis University in Missouri and then I went to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The program sent me to Moreau Catholic High School.
MW: What were you like as a 15-year-old?
AR: I was similar to my middle school days. I was goofy and I laughed a lot. I liked having fun and playing around. I also had a serious aspect to myself where I wanted to achieve and do well. I was deemed as a goody-two-shoes. I always wanted to please my parents.
MW: What were your hobbies growing up?
AR: A lot of sports. Growing up I played a lot of sports. A little bit of basketball, wrestling, baseball, soccer, and football. In high school I really just focused on baseball and football.
MW: Do you still have the same hobbies now?
AR: Not really. When I came to Moreau I started coaching with Mr. Henriquez so I started running a lot. And now living in California I started hiking more and biking more. I like to explore the Bay Area a lot.
MW: What was your first job and how old were you when you first started working?
AR: I was fifteen and a half when I started working. Before that I was babysitting. At fifteen and a half I was working in Ohio and I was a parking lot attendant. We parked cars for concerts.
MW: What was your toughest job?
AR: Physically would be when I worked public works for a town shift for a city in Cincinnati. I was doing a lot of physical labor–construction type things. The hardest mentally would be teaching.
MW: What led you to becoming a teacher?
AR: Both of my parents are teachers, and so I always saw that as a career that could be fun. You get to work with a lot of people and I always liked working with others. What specifically attracted me to teaching was seeing that my parents had a healthy work-life balance.
MW: How did you transition from wanting to be an oncologist into teaching?
AR: My degree was in neuroscience which is not education. So I needed to get my masters in education. I found that program in Notre Dame that allowed me to teach, but at the same time take those classes to get my masters.
MW: What is something you’ve done that you’d like to share?
AR: A lot of my time right now is planning for a wedding. I’m getting married this summer. Recently I went on a back country skiing trip which means i’ll be backpacking, but through the snow.
MW: How did you change when you became an adult?
AR: I think I stayed pretty similar. I’m a little bit more stressed out about things these days, but I’m still a really curious and happy person.
MW: What is the most challenging class to teach?
AR: I think teaching a language is difficult because there’s a lot of speaking practice.
MW: Any last words to share?
AR: Our world needs a lot more empathy, so just keep caring for those around you.
About the Author
