Kimberley Donaldson, science teacher

By Ramona Jacobson

By teaching at Lowell, Biology and Biotechnology teacher Kimberly Donaldson has come back to her hometown. She is a San Francisco native who attended school at St. Stephen’s Elementary and Mercy High School near Lowell. After college, she attended the University of Georgia and received her master’s degree in food microbiology and food science. Before becoming a teacher, she pursued a career as a researcher for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Her passions include gardening, antique collecting, hiking, and spending time in Lake Tahoe.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

Teaching is really my second career. I spent the majority of my career working as a researcher for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Then, with work-life balance and family, I decided to start teaching at the college level as a second job. I ended up liking it and enjoying it, so I moved from research to teaching. I taught as a high school teacher for many years before this, but mostly my experience is teaching at the college level. 

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

I love to garden and I spend a lot of my time up in the Sierras. I love to go to Lake Tahoe, and I enjoy being out in the forest and hiking and just spending time outdoors.

If you could choose to teach a different subject, what would it be?

I would probably be a history teacher. History is fascinating, and I think so much of science is interwoven with history. So much of it is in some ways serendipitous, because of events that happened to occur and that led to scientific discoveries.

Where did you grow up and go to college?

I’m a San Francisco native, so this is coming home for me. I’m very local. I grew up here in the city. I went to elementary school right near Lowell, at Saint Stephen’s. I went to Mercy High School on 19th Avenue. I actually went to school with Ms. Petrini, who teaches here. We’re still friends to this day. I started out my college career at Foothill College in Los Altos, and then I transferred to the University of Nevada in Reno. I got my bachelor’s degree there, and then I went on to get my masters at the University of Georgia in Athens. I’m now halfway through completion of my doctorate at Piedmont University in Georgia, through a hybrid of virtual and in-person learning.

What was your high school experience like? 

I enjoyed college much more, but I made lifelong friends in high school, and I’m friends with those people to this day. I also had some really great teachers in high school that formed the foundation of my college study. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to study what I studied and do as well as I did in college, had it not been for the teachers that I had in high school.

What is one thing that you think your students would be surprised to find out about you?

I’m a collector. I love antiques and I collect antiques, and if I’m not outdoors hiking or gardening, I am scouring flea markets and thrift stores and tag sales for antiques. I love the thrill of the hunt, of looking for something.

What are you looking forward to the most in your first year at Lowell?

I’m really looking forward to the experience and to the students and learning new things. I’m also looking forward to coming back home, since San Francisco is my hometown.

Michael Sera, PE and AVID teacher

By Ramona Jacobson

Michael Sera is a San Francisco native, as well as a Lowell and San Francisco State alumni. During high school, he devoted his time to baseball, eventually becoming team captain. As a teacher, he hopes to use his mentorship skills acquired as a Lowell baseball coach to educate students not only in school, but in life. Outside of school, he enjoys spending time with friends and being outdoors. 

What inspired you to become a teacher?

I’ve been coaching baseball for over a decade now, particularly here at Lowell. I enjoy the mentorship I provide to my players, and I feel that translates well to teaching not only content, but life skills that they can have for the remainder of their lives.

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

Hanging out with friends, watching sporting events, kayaking, bouldering. I’m up for anything outdoors and physical.

If you could choose to teach a different subject, what would it be?

I have a background in biology and I have a masters degree in biomedical engineering, so if I were to get a second credential, it would probably be in biology. I enjoy the subject a lot.

Where did you grow up and go to college?

I’m a San Francisco native. I went to San Francisco State for college, and I’m an alumnus of Lowell High School.

What was your high school experience like? 

It revolved around my extracurricular activities, baseball in particular. What really made my experience good was being able to play on the baseball team for four years, and being a captain my senior year. I enjoyed my time here, and I met a lot of good teachers. Funny enough, about a third of them are still here, and a lot of them are now the department chairs. It’s really nice to see that progression for them. 

What is one thing that you think your students would be surprised to find out about you?

I had a YouTube channel a long time ago when I was in high school doing dance tutorials, mainly hip hop dancing. I met a lot of people all over the Bay Area through breakdancing and hip hop. I had a decent amount of subscribers, but I definitely deleted the channel when I got out of high school. It was a little embarrassing, but it was a lot of fun for me.

What are you looking forward to the most in your first year at Lowell?

Being back and working with the community that raised me. Also, changing the stigma that Lowell has. I’m someone that’s come from the inside, and I see all the background stuff that’s occurring now as a teacher, so it’s really neat to see that come to fruition. I hope that I can impart some life lessons and mentorship to students, and help them understand that it’s not all over when you get a B in class. There’s more to life than just grades, and it’s bigger than just the school work and the stuff they’re learning. It’s making friends, communication, gaining leadership skills, and being the best person they can be.

Jasmine Bell, history teacher

By Thomas Harrison

With a teaching career spanning kindergarten, middle school, and high school, Jasmine Bell brings a wide breadth of experience to Lowell. Bell is inspired by her dad’s difficulty in receiving a quality education to serve students with respect and good will. When her dad was a student, his teachers neglected his educational needs, failing to provide him with the essential learning opportunities. Now, as a Modern World History and American Democracy teacher at Lowell, Bell wants to be the teacher she wishes people like her dad could have had. 

If you could choose a different subject to teach, what would you teach?

English, because that’s what I used to teach before I came to Lowell.

What’s your favorite part of teaching?

I really love working with students. I love how funny [they are] and how much we joke around, and also watching students discover new content. 

What’s something that your students would be surprised to find out about you?

I’ve taught kindergarten, middle school, and now high school, so I’ve done all the grades.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

My dad. My dad didn’t have a great education growing up. The teachers didn’t really respect him as a learner and didn’t mold to his needs, and it inspired me to become a teacher to do the complete opposite.

What made you choose Lowell specifically?

I love a big campus, I love a campus that has a lot of pride, so I thought that Lowell would be the best choice.

What was your high school experience like?

So fun! I remember pep rallies, and I remember going to homecoming and prom. It was just such a fun experience, and I’m excited to hopefully in the future have clubs to be able to make Lowell students’ experiences good as well.

What are your hobbies outside of school?

I like to do pottery and I also do a bit of weaving and knitting. I love to hike and hang out with my dog and [do] city stuff.

Anything else you’d like to say to Lowell students?

I can’t wait to help you all!

Mitch Feingold, English teacher

By Sia Terplan

Mitch Feingold grew up in Novato, California before heading off to the University of Oregon to study business and Spanish. He initially worked in sync licensing, but switched paths to pursue a career in education. Feingold’s favorite subject has always been English, so becoming an English 1 and 2 teacher felt like the perfect fit for him. He did not give up on his passion for music, and continues to DJ in his free time. Feingold is excited to be at Lowell this year and hopes to form strong bonds with all of his students, understanding that while they are here to learn from him, he has a lot he can learn from them as well. 

At what moment did you realize you wanted to become a teacher?

Recently, actually. I studied business and I worked in sales and PR. Music is a big passion of mine, too, so I kind of combined that passion for making music with my business background and was working in the music business. It wasn’t resonating. It felt very toxic, I didn’t have a good work-life balance. And probably two and a half years ago I had this epiphany that I wanted to teach. I’ve always been a really big lifelong reader. I like talking about analyzing the world, and it was kind of an inexplicable feeling. And I completely wanted to switch paths. I started shadowing some teachers, saw something that I would want to do, and then went back to school for it. 

What was your childhood like? 

I grew up in Novato, which is up north in the North Bay. I was a very active kid, played sports all the time, was always outdoors, and was always getting into no good. I was super goofy; I loved to laugh. I was the youngest of three and had a supportive family. We had our issues but I was taken care of at the end of the day, so I feel fortunate for that. I went to Novato High School. 

What do you do in your free time?

I love to make music. I got into DJing last summer, which has been fun. And yoga, pilates, [I am] very active. I had a really bad back injury and I’m constantly trying to get ahead of that, so I exercise a lot. 

If you could choose a different subject to teach, what would it be?

I think I would like to teach ethnic studies, or psychology, something along those lines. I’m fascinated by the brain and the way that we as humans operate, and just the dynamics between humans and everything related to ethnic studies. Also, in psychology just learning more about how to be an effective human being is super interesting to me. A lot of those studies on efficiency, our own biology, how we operate, and how we are related to each other is a big piece of my teaching pedagogy. 

What are you looking forward to the most in your first year at Lowell?

Just developing relationships with kids. It’s super fun to me to have the chance to have an entirely new group of people I’m exposed to, and we don’t know anything about each other. But over the course of the year and going through the process of working and growing together, our relationship is forever bonded because of that experience. I just love that feeling of by the end of the year, really feeling like we created some sort of community. So I’m excited to do that with 150 students, five different classes.

Grace Chiu, history teacher

By Thomas Harrison

Although her high school in San Jose was as rigorous as Lowell, Grace Chiu has always been more focused on finding her footing than clawing her way to the top of the academic ladder. Now, joining Lowell after nine years of teaching English at AP Giannini Middle School, Chiu hopes to teach her students that success is more than just a grade they get or a college they go to. Inspired by her junior year history teacher who believed in her despite her not having the best grades, Chiu is now teaching World History and American Democracy to Lowell students.
What made you want to teach at Lowell, specifically?

I went to a high school very similar to Lowell, and so I felt like I could connect with the student population and their families and maybe bring a new perspective to Lowell because I wasn’t like a super studious student. I wanted to show that you can still be successful in your life even if you don’t end up going to, like, an Ivy League.

What was your high school experience like?

I went to a very academically rigorous school, [where it was] very common for students to graduate with many APs. Everybody was, like, Stanford bound. And at the time everyone still took SATs so there were a lot of students who had perfect SAT scores. So it was a lot of pressure, but then I wasn’t really into academics, so a lot of the time I was just trying to find my footing, like where do I belong in high school?

If you could choose a different subject to teach, what would you teach?

English Language Arts! I taught it for nine years at APG.

What’s your favorite part of teaching?

I love seeing former students. I love seeing how they’re doing and how much they’ve accomplished and grown. 

What’s something that your students would be surprised to find out about you?

I think probably my music choice. I think if they were to look at my Spotify playlist and see what I’m listening to on my walks, they would be surprised. I’ve got a playlist on Spotify called “A+ Litty” and it is pretty lit.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

It was Mr. Evans, my junior year U.S. History teacher. I felt like we really connected and he saw me, [and] even if I wasn’t the typical Mission student he still had faith in me. I really wanted to be a high school history teacher after having Mr. Evans as my teacher.

Outside school, what are your other hobbies? 

I’m basically trapped in a 70-year-old person’s body. I like taking walks and I like baking. And I like reading. Hit me up with your book recommendations. 

Is there anything else in general that you’d like to say to Lowell students?

It’s okay to make mistakes. I think through our mistakes we learn, so you don’t have to do everything perfect for the first time.