After ten years of teaching, one teacher of the year award and one too many pairs of crocs to count, room 710’s tenant Kourtney Saavedra’s time at West is dwindling with her recent decision to take a step back from teaching to travel around the country with her husband.
“I want to see all the things,” said Saavedra. “We’re young and healthy, and I want to do all these things before I’m sixty and my back hurts.”
Saavedra has already begun preparations in order for her and her husband to pick up and start their adventures. She plans on putting her house on the market within the next few weeks and buying a fifth wheel camper that will act as her home away from home.
Even though leaving teaching means losing a reliable income and benefits, Saavedra has plans for supplementing her income through her teachers pay teachers account, teaching online, picking up seasonal jobs and what she’s most excited about: “Columbia to Carolina,” their YouTube channel.
“My husband and I were doing some research about a cruise we’re going to take in the summer,” said Saavedra. “We realized there weren’t a lot of resources in Spanish from this travel perspective. So I thought it would be cool if we started exploring Brunswick County in Spanish and English so we got a really cool camera and mic and we’ve started vlogging. […] since we’ve decided to start traveling the country we’ll continue our vlogging journey online as well.”
Saavedra has taught a flurry of subjects, from AP U.S. History to AP Human Geography, and as she’s been teaching these subjects she hasn’t had the chance to visit the places that she finds herself teaching about.
“I want to start off in the Northeastern United States,” said Saavedra. “There’s a ton of history. I want to go to Boston and Philadelphia because I teach U.S History and I’m a nerd. I want to see a moose, I want fresh blueberries and lobster from Maine, fresh maple syrup from Vermont, beignets from New Orleans and eventually, we’d like to hit all forty-eight states.”
With all these adventures planned, Saavedra has still expressed her love, not only for teaching but for Brunswick County and West Brunswick itself.
“I don’t foresee myself leaving forever,” said Saavedra. “I’m not really sure when that would be, in the next two to five years probably. […] If I come back to teaching in Brunswick County, it would totally be West. I love the teachers here and I love the students here.”
Though Saavedra is temporarily leaving Brunswick County, she still encourages her students to keep up with her through email, her teacher instagram account “socialstudiesgiraffe” or her youtube channel “Columbia to Carolina.”
“I’d love for graduates to connect and keep me updated with what’s going on,” said Saavedra. “I love to see people after they leave. It’s sad to watch 10 years of kids graduate and then sometimes I never see them again. I still want to keep up with you guys, even if I’m not here still.”
