English teacher Julia Taylor is new to Paly this year after teaching at George Washington High School in San Francisco for six years.

Taylor, an East Coast native, says she enjoys the warm weather and the liberal atmosphere that is partial to California.

Taylor attended Allegheny College in Pennsylvania for her undergraduate degree and resumed schooling at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she earned her teaching credentials. Under her English degree, Taylor was also able to study Spanish and linguistics.

Immediately after graduating college, Taylor joined the Peace Corps, where she was stationed in Poland for two years.

“We nicknamed ourselves the Posh Corp because even though we had to take a paddle boat to the site, we had McDonalds and [wore] Levi’s,” Taylor said.

Although many of her peers went home on early termination, Taylor preferred to stay and carry out her obligation.

“Like the motto says, it’s the toughest job you’ll ever love. If I had the chance to go back, I’d do it all over again,” Taylor said.

While working at George Washington High School, Taylor began to search for a job at a different school that would enable her to teach all the higher level thinking skills and activities she was not able to teach previously.

“I was very persnickety about choosing a school to work at,” Taylor said. “I wanted a school with a sense of community. My last school had absolutely no school spirit.”

Taylor says she took all these things for granted when she was in high school, and feels that it is essential to have a strong core community during school because it really adds to the high school experience.

“Basically, I want to love teaching again,” Taylor said. “I want to have students actually interested in learning.”