By Reece M. Krantz ’16
THE ROUNDUP

It is the teachers that help create the community of any school campus, and they take its ideologies and spread them with good intentions.

Their work in the classroom is paramount, but what they do off campus also makes up who they are as a teacher and person.

Ms. Beth Clarke is one such teacher who combines Brophy influences to activities outside of campus.

A teacher in the religious studies department, Ms. Clarke uses her background to help her run a women’s spirituality group at the Franciscan Renewal Center.

“The group is like a retreat, it’s like that except its once a week with a new topic and it’s all centered around the life of a saint,” Ms. Clarke said.

Ms. Clarke said that a friend of hers convinced her to start it.

“I finished my masters in theology about a year ago and my friend wanted to do something with that. She was convinced that I need to do something else other than talk to teenage boys,” Ms. Clarke said, “which is kind of my life now.”

Outside of Brophy, Ms. Clarke also partakes in a theater group and has a notable role in acting and producing.

“I do a theater project at ASU called the ‘Encyclopedia Show,’ and I preform in it occasionally. I also help write and produce the show. I write skits and stuff,” Ms. Clarke said.

Ms. Clarke said the project originated in Chicago and was started by former speech and debate students and coaches.

“There is a group of us, I’m not the only director. I’m part of the production company. You can write almost anything. Whether it’s factual or not doesn’t matter.”

Ms. Clarke also said that she enjoys cooking and watching Netflix with friends and family.

Ms. Jessie Mason is another teacher whose outside influences are connected to campus in some shape or form.

“I have this horrible tendency to keep busy, I get bored if I’m not doing anything,” Ms. Mason said.

One of her activities that shows school influences is her writing, which came from ironic circumstances.

“I started writing in classes in high school cause I was bored and it was a great way to disguise writing notes,” Ms. Mason said. “I’m sure the student body would enjoy that.”

Ms. Mason recently finished a novel, and used creative momentum from graduate school to help motivate and accomplish it.

“These novels I started in graduate school, and it was encouraged to do creative things so I wrote a lot,” Ms. Mason said. “My novel is surprisingly not about math. It is an urban fantasy novel and to go in-depth would take too long.”

Brophy has influenced her writings in a subtle way, Ms. Mason said. She keeps a strict policy that no characters are based off students. Small lines and character traits are drawn from what she knows from campus life.

She also has been doing martial arts for the past 10 years, and found a way to relate it to math and her classroom.

“I still do martial arts, I’ve done that since 19. I have a black belt and I continue to train with my instructor,” Ms. Mason said. “Martial arts was something that I was always interested, tried it, loved and stuck with it. I’ve been able to employ martial arts to concepts of math.”

Mr. Patrick Kolb is an Environmental Science teacher. His activities range from sports to Science and Quiz Bowls.

“These days I coach tennis after school,” Mr. Kolb said. “I also moderate the Quiz Bowl and Science Bowl. Outside of Brophy I like to bike ride and read the newspaper.”

Mr. Kolb’s experiences with tennis began in his childhood.

“As a kid there was a swim and tennis club near our house, normally you had to be a member but they typically turned the other way and let people play on the open courts,” Mr. Kolb said.

Mr. Kolb said he also follows a credence of Brophy outside of campus walls.

“At Brophy we believe that teaching goes beyond the classroom. You want to be involved in the kids life behind the typical three o’clock day,” Mr. Kolb said. “Getting to interact with a lot of new kids that I wouldn’t normally interact with is a wonderful thing.”

Science bowl started at Mr. Kolb’s previous school, Basis, and practically started it in Arizona.

“Brophy Science bowl was more skilled based, where as Basis was just numbers of participants,” Mr. Kolb said. “We beat pretty much everyone except Brophy, and in a year or two later I was teaching here.”