By: Emily Fox
"I came to Howard in 2005; I had been teaching previously in Baltimore County schools for 13 years. When I got here, I had never taught high school and I knew absolutely nothing about the school or the community. When I started out at Howard I also had three kids under the age of three. It was tough balancing work and life, but you get through these things. My first year was a little rough but overall I felt welcome. The best thing that came out of my first year was it was also Ms. Mager’s first year and we both taught American government; we had multiple things to bond over and we helped each other out. Over the past fourteen years I have really learned to embrace the community and students and what we stand for here. When I was at a conference maybe ten years ago, there was a school in western Maryland that put together the history of their high school and I thought it would be a neat idea to do something like that, interview alumni and staff and put a project together, however I didn’t have the resources. Fast forward to 2016 and 2017, we formed the Rho Kappa National honors society, and the first year we were testing things out, but at the end of the year we wanted to start an oral history project and record the history of Howard high school and our alumni. We started making contacts and putting everything together and had a really good turnout: close to 25 alumni. This year we had another great turnout and we now have a Facebook alumni page with over 500 friends. Getting to know the Howard community and our history has been amazing. There are many special people with many special stories. My passion for history goes back a long time; as a child, the Vietnam war was going on which peaked my interest of war and history. My parents also bought me lots of history books and we often went on trips to Gettysburg. In fact, I have a second grade report card where my teacher wrote that she hopes I keep up my love for history. However right now and for the past few years I have been teaching economics. I ran into a friend about 13 years ago who got me into teaching AP economics and our first class started with nine students. Then the next year 30. Then the year after that we had multiple classes for economics. Next year we will have six classes. I really enjoy teaching economics because it is something you can take away with you. You can use what you learn and apply that knowledge after high school and college. I also get really pumped up when I see my class list and excited when I see my students use what I teach them and continue economics in college and sometimes even pursue a career with it. My biggest accomplishments over the years have definitely been growing the economics course at Howard and becoming the leader of the department. Another major accomplish is getting my masters in administration 20 years ago. I originally wanted to be a pediatrician when I was younger so I have always had an idea of working with kids. Something a lot of people do not know about me is that I worked in my family’s automobile business from a teen until my 20s and there are a lot of things I can do with cars. I was in a very different setting years ago. I was also originally an accounting major and later switched over to a business major but I didn’t like that either. I then decided to go back and get my degree in secondary education in social studies. And the rest is history!"
Emily's Connection:
I met Mr. Hollander last year in my AP government class with Ms. Goldsmith; every other day he would pop in our class and chat with us about government. This year, I spent more time with Mr. Hollander in Rho Kappa Social Studies National Honor Society. Because of his passion for our Oral History Project (where we interview Howard alumni/staff about their experience at Howard) I thought it would be interesting to learn where his passion for history and the Howard community came from. I connected with Mr. Hollander’s story because I am also interested in history. I am interested in the history of less broad topics, for example instead of world history, the history of something more specific and smaller such as Howard High School. I also connected with Mr. Hollander’s story because I am very interested in working with others, specifically children as well. I am taking his AP Micro/Macro Economics class next year as well, I cannot wait to learn from and more about him.
