Summerville High School’s principal, Mr. Christopher, is a well-known person around campus and recently shared with the senior class his journey in becoming the person he is today. He shared his experiences in college baseball that led him to pursue a career involving children.

“When I was in college playing baseball, we would host youth camps and kids would do a baseball camp. During my freshman year, my coach at the time thought I was pretty good with kids,” Mr. Christopher stated.

Once going off to college, Mr. Christopher explained how he changed his major from political science to education. While growing up, Mr. Christopher was influenced by his family and close friends in becoming the person he is today.

“I was born in Southern California but grew up in Livermore, where I call my hometown. When I was in Livermore, I was close with my group of friends and the parents that were very instrumental [in my life] to this day,” Mr. Christopher said.

After graduating from college, Mr. Christopher went back to teach at Livermore High School.

“It was kind of weird at first because some of the teachers I had when I went to school were now my colleagues, but I think it was more weird for them rather than me,” shared Mr. Christopher.

During Senior Seminar, Mr. Christopher discussed his experience teaching English Language Development (ELD) at Livermore High School. The class not only educated his students, but him as well. He expressed that teaching children without English as their native language taught him about himself and prepared him to become an administrator.

“It was a challenging experience. It was a challenging class to teach, but it was probably one of the most beneficial things I did as an educator,” stated Mr. Christopher.

Mr. Atkins expressed his thoughts on the stories Mr. Christopher shared with the seniors.

“It was great because I was intrigued by the Amazon fishing trip that the principal had taken earlier in his life,” stated Mr. Atkins.

Mr. Christopher also discussed his family life today and meeting his wife in college, who he had a few classes with.

“We had a mutual friend and one of my teammates went to high school with her and we kind of met through him,” Mr. Christopher noted.

Jamee shared some thoughts about what qualities stand out about the principal, as well as some interesting and unique facts about him.

“The principal wishes his first name was spelt with one ‘T’… He will eat anything you offer him, he brings all of his lunches in baggies so you never know what he’s going to eat. For example, tuna out of a bag.”

Senior Grace Benicki shared the impact Mr. Christopher’s stories had on her life. She talked about some of the takeaways she learned from his talk during Mr. Atkins’ Senior Seminar classes.

“My main takeaway is how people can really influence your life, and how taking different experiences and saying yes to everything is more beneficial than just saying ‘no’ all the time,” stated Benicki.

Beyond the Cave thanks Mr. Christopher for his commitment to the students of Summerville High School and inspiring them to succeed.