There are so many teachers at WB with interesting and engaging stories to share and one in particular deserves to be shared today. This teacher grew up in West Bloomfield and went to the University of Michigan.
Mrs. Sepetys, in room #644, has been teaching for 18 years and has pioneered her own class into the school out of pure compassion.
“This year I teach Positive Psychology, World History, Cultural Studies of Gender, and in semester 1 I taught Global Studies of Genocide,” Mrs. Sepetys said.
All of these classes have very interesting topics and sometimes hard conversations, but the one class Mrs. Sepetys is most connected to, is Positive Psychology.
“So I went back to school at the same time as COVID to start up a PhD program at Oakland University. At the time, I started to notice that there was a decline in students’ mental health,” Sepetys said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “In 2019, 37% of students overall experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and by 2021 that figure rose to 42%”
She ended up doing a lot of research, first on student mental health and then specifically on programs which could help students here at WB.
“It was a long process, but I then developed positive psychology, a class to help improve student wellbeing,” Sepetys said.
Creating a whole class from scratch and for the purpose of helping students mental health is such an impressive feat so how did Mrs. Sepetys even get there in the first place?!
She explained, “At first I actually didn’t want to become a teacher after I graduated from college. Everyone in my family were teachers and all wanted me to go into education so because of that I decided I wouldn’t!”
She went into Sales and Advertising in college but wasn’t very satisfied with it. Eventually started doing volunteer work to tutor children with their reading and writing.
“I love it so much and loved making connections with the kids so in the end I did go into teaching! I went to DePaul university and got my masters in Education and my teaching certificate.”
Mrs. Sepetys loved working with kids so much that she became a teacher. She eventually got to WB and the rest is history.
She grew up in West Bloomfield, graduating from WBHS and going to the University of Michigan.
“My first job I received was teaching at an alternative high school in Ferndale, but then I wanted to teach in this district because I thought it would be a lot of fun to teach in the district where I grew up in,” Sepetys stated.
Mrs. Sepetys has accomplished so much already in her life and no doubt she will accomplish more. These accomplishments seemed like a breeze but that’s not completely true.
Like many high school students, she didn’t have any idea what she wanted to do when she was in high school.
“I think I was a good student, played tennis, did drama, and was in many clubs, but I was the kind of student who didn’t know what they wanted to do with their life,” Sepetys explained.
“It just took me a longer period of time to figure out. I think that it’s okay for students to not know what they want to do at this age. It’s all a learning process.”
Her career and life so far show that teens have time and should just try to pursue what they love.
