As you walk into the media center to return a textbook or attend a meeting in the fishbowl, you are often greeted by the sounds of typing and the hushed voices of students attending online classes. Though this setting is familiar to many, an unfamiliar face may greet you as you walk in.
Alison McNulty is one of the high school’s newest staff members. She carries the responsibilities of running the library and acts as a supervisor and advisor for students attending online classes.
“I actually split the position with Miss Coscarelli, who has been filling in for Mr. Burba this year.” McNulty said. “So I’m here for first and second hour, and then she does it third hour, and then I also work with Pre AP [Advance Placement] credit recovery during third hour…”
While new to the media center, McNulty is not completely unfamiliar with the high school.
“I’m new to this position, but I have been student teaching here all year. I’ve been working with Dr. Steelman in the English department, so I’ve been here since August,” McNulty said.
McNulty grew up in the Grand Rapids area and attended Catholic Central High School, later to go on to study Spanish and psychology at Grand Valley State University (GVSU). In college, she studied abroad in Spain, which instilled in her a love for travel.
McNulty was also a member of the Peace Corps and was stationed in Nicaragua. There, she worked to accomplish a series of goals aimed to better the lives of Nicaraguan citizens. These goals included reducing the rate of teen pregnancy, slowing the spread of HIV and other STI’s, and improving maternal and child health.
“It involved a lot of teaching and trying to get behavioral change, which is really hard because if somebody doesn’t want to do something, it’s really hard to get them to do it, and that was part of what I learned, ” McNulty said.
Teaching may be a passion of McNulty’s now, but it wasn’t always that way.
“It wasn’t until I was probably in the Peace Corps and I worked with a lot of different groups of people and did a lot of informal teaching.” McNulty said. “I realized I really liked working with teenagers, and I really love reading, and I was like ‘I want to talk with kids about books all the time.”
When she isn’t teaching or reading, McNulty loves to be outside and enjoys being as active as possible.
“I’m really active. I like to run. I like to bike, to hike, to do yoga, go camping, to go to the beach. So I really like summer as you can imagine,” McNulty said.
This summer, McNulty can be found planning her wedding in August with her fiance, hanging out with her cat, or curled up with a cup of tea and a good book, reading the day away.