Next semester, the English Department will welcome a new teacher to its rank. The new teacher, taken on in part because of  an irregular schedule that left the English Department with two unassigned classes in the second semester, is Kaia Preus––a current building substitute teacher and an ’09 graduate of BSM.

Preus received her MFA in creative writing from Hollins University in Virginia last spring, and previously attended St. Olaf College as an undergraduate. Due to her experience with creative writing, Ms. Preus will teach two sections of creative writing and a section of English 10. “Writing is a very solitary thing, so it’s nice to break it up [with teaching], and I’m really excited to teach English in particular, because I get to share my passion––I love reading and I love writing so much,” Preus said.

In regards to teaching where she went to high school, Preus said that the transition has felt natural. “The thing about BSM is that we are such a community that I was totally welcomed back. So, it’s almost weird because it doesn’t feel super weird; I just feel like I’ve always been a part of the community here and now I get to do so in a different capacity,” Preus said.

In addition to teaching, Preus will be a Speech coach in their upcoming season — an activity that she participated in as a student at BSM. “I was a speech captain my senior year here, so I’m super pumped about that,” said Preus.  

Earlier in the school year, Preus talked to non-fiction classes about her writing career and her current non-fiction project on Benjamin Britton’s “War Requiem” and the poet, Wilfred Owen, whose poems are featured in the composition. “I talked about how I got to where I am now and the difficulties of being a writer. I think it’s really valuable for students to talk to people who are doing what they might want to do someday,” Preus said.