Eja Fromm
Meet the new staff at Mission and get to know how they add to the Diablo family.
Mission Viejo High School: a school full of diversity and prosperity. Mission is widely known all over the world because of its astounding accomplishments. Our staff is one of the key parts that operates MVHS to make us such a strong school. These are the new elite staff members at Mission Viejo High School.
The first interview was with Mrs. Kiakotos, a guidance counselor for last names A-D. While she was a junior in college, Mrs. Kiakotos decided to become a guidance counselor after her best friend told her she is the only reason she went to college. This had a big impact on her as she believes she can be “that one person in someone else’s life to encourage them to continue their education into college.”
Mrs. Kiakotos is originally from Anaheim, but has moved around parts of California since. She loves everything about Mission including the wonderful group of students and teachers we have here.
When asked how much high school has changed since she was a student, her response was, “The increase in social media, style, and the competition kids have with each other.”
Her advice for freshmen is if you’re ever going through something to go see your counselor and everything will be okay. Her favorite quote is “If you believe, you can achieve.”
Another teacher that is new to our campus is Mrs. Trench. Mrs. Trench got what she expected when she decided to become an English teacher here at Mission. She loves teaching juniors and being a part of yearbook. She described all the teachers as very supportive and kind.
She first taught elementary school kids, but she wasn’t a fan of the job. That’s when she made the decision to teach high schoolers. She says high school hasn’t changed that much since she was in it. However, chromebooks are new compared to handwriting all their notes.
Mrs. Trench grew up in south Orange County, and she graduated from Trabuco Hills High School. It wasn’t easy choosing a quote of the day from her wall of many. We ended up deciding the best one was, “strive for progress, not perfection.”
Next up was Mr. Klein, our schools new speech pathologist. A speech pathologist is specialized in treating speech and language problems. He states that the staff and students made it very easy to be the new guy. He claimed that style is one of the major changes that he has noticed since he was a high schooler. He said, “When I was in high school it was cool to wear oversized t-shirts and designer jeans. I’m happy that’s not currently a thing I am noticing.”
Mr. Klein decided to pursue his career when he was a junior at Loyola Marymount University, “I approached a professor about a lecture that I loved and she pointed me to this career path thinking it best fit my interests.” He said it wasn’t easy figuring out what you want to do when you are young.
His advice for freshmen is to be open to new things and people. He played baseball as a freshman and loved being part of the team, and stated,“I would recommend joining a club or sport.”
He wasn’t prepared with a quote of the day but after some thought his final answer was, “Success is a measure of progress.”
Finally, there is Mrs. Contreras, who is no stranger to MVHS as she was a student teacher last year. She claims our school is like her high school, Los Osos High School. It helps to have a familiar environment.
She knew she wanted to become a math teacher since 4th grade. She graduated 5 years ago and the only real difference is how we use technology.
Mrs. Contreras has a new quote on her whiteboard everyday. The quote on September 17th was “don’t let yesterday’s disappointments keep you from tomorrow’s dreams.”
It was a pleasure to interview the incredible new staff at MVHS. The staff and the student body are what make our high school outstanding.
