Much of the student population at Sacred Heart has either been in her classroom or at least heard of Ms. York. Known for teaching Geometry Honors and AP Calculus BC, Ms. York’s passion for math and desire to see her students succeed cannot be missed. From transitioning from playing softball her whole life to running track and throwing the javelin in high school, Ms. York knows all about creating balance in the life of a student-athlete and how to rise to the occasion.
Before she became a teacher here in Atherton, California, Ms. York lived in the South, specifically Georgia and South Carolina, up until the age of sixteen. York grew up playing softball, even becoming a freshman on varsity at her high school in South Carolina. However, that first season of her high school career, a massive accident occurred, resulting in every tendon, ligament, muscle, and cartilage in her knee being torn. After this, York underwent recovery for eighteen months and was unfortunately notified by her knee specialist that “contact sports were no longer an option.”
Despite this significant burden, Ms. York was able to recover and find a new way to stay active and work out through track and field. Seeing that this was one of the only solo-athlete sports that could strongly benefit from her speed and strong softball arm, Ms. York wasted no time in finding which events suited her best. After trying multiple throwing-related events, such as the discus and shot put, York found a deep fascination with throwing the javelin. The 4×400 relay and 800m events were instantly picked up as well, for both came naturally to her, thanks to her endurance honed by years of softball. And just like that, despite her major knee injury, Ms. York was still able to conclude her high school career as a high-level athlete.
While furthering her education at Western Oregon University, Ms. York was also a competitive weightlifter for several years. And although York had been keen on sports for the past years, she also took the opportunity in college to pursue a subject she had always gravitated towards, even in younger grades: math.
It was Ms. York’s knee injury took part in her discovery of her passion for math, specifically calculus. As a previously intensely active student, it was only natural that she wanted to participate in sports whenever she could. However, with time away from softball due to recovery, Ms. York found herself engrossed in the world of math. Therefore, it was only natural that she would later earn her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and become a teacher for advanced math courses.
Now, Ms. York has been at Sacred Heart for around eleven and a half years. When York first started with the Precalculus BC Honors course, “one thing [she] noticed was the foundation of freshmen coming in at the honors level [who] needed more support [and] guidance so that they could be successful in all four years.” It was for this shaky foundation that Ms. York decided to start teaching the Geometry Honors course, in order “to provide the rigor and support needed to [bring] the foundation [for high school math] upward.” Then, to build on those foundational math skills she would establish in students, Ms. York added teaching AP Calculus BC to her schedule, the course that many students encounter as they wrap up their high school years of math.
AP Calc BC is the subset of math that has been Ms. York’s fascination for years, dating back to her college years. Ms York takes great pride in “being able to teach this class, which is pretty much the hardest [high school] level math class, and to be able to represent as a female at this high level of teaching is important for [her] to advocate that females can do math–hard math–and hard things.” After teaching AP Calc BC for six years, this will be her seventh year, as well as her sixth year teaching Geometry Honors.
One of Ms. York’s key principles mirrors the saying, “with great power comes great responsibility.” She believes that “more rigorous courses require higher support.” Ms. York’s Office Hours and sometimes her lunches are utilized well by students with varying levels of athletic participation. When preparing for major assessments, Ms. York opens some lunch times to offer the extra support that students may need, reflecting her ideology as a teacher. Furthermore, Ms. York strives to see her students succeed and achieve their goals, pursuing less stress and more enjoyment in her math classes.
As a math teacher with numerous years of experience as a student-athlete under her belt, it is only natural that Ms. York has invaluable advice for her students. When she was a student, York would stress about grades and percentages, but she now advises her students to “enjoy the smaller moments because getting a bad grade on one thing is a grain of salt in the grand scheme of life.” Moreover, Ms. York still believes that it is “student-athlete, not athlete-student,” and believes that finding the “thread of balance [between athletics and academics] is the hardest thing for athletes to find, but is definitely doable.”
Ms. York, with her prior experience as a student-athlete, sets a remarkable example for all Sacred Heart Prep students to rise to the occasion and succeed in both aspects of life. With inspirational quotes and sayings, e.g., “kia kaha,” the sharing of personal experiences, hardships, and successes, and a supportive teaching style, Ms. York makes math classes enjoyable as students succeed in the productive environment of her classroom.
