Ms. Samantha Donohue, a freshman English teacher at Desert Vista High School, has announced that she will be moving to China to teach first graders at Quality Schools International, an American International School where the children are required to speak English in order to attend. Although it won’t be an easy transition going from high school to elementary school, she has the teaching skills to make it possible.

Not only was she a freshman teacher, but she was also one of the coaches for speech and debate, which, according to her, was the best part of the whole high school teaching experience. Traveling and watching the kids compete was a nice vacation from all of the teaching aspects.

Even though everything about leaving America is hard, Donohue says that leaving her cat, Oliver, behind has to be one of the hardest parts because she is worried about his safety and thinks that traveling with him would be a bad idea.

Originally from California, Donohue thought it would be a good idea to get away from home to go to college at ASU (Arizona State University).

“I wanted to leave California and go out of state for college, and all of my friends who were going there had wonderful things to say. I wanted a traditional college experience and that’s exactly what I got at ASU,” said Donohue.

Leaving high school English teaching behind is going to be even harder, considering the fact that she had such a passion for it when she was in high school. Donohue enjoyed working with all of her high school English teachers and always loved reading and writing.

“My overall experience was definitely good. There’s never a dull moment teaching freshmen. Overall, I loved my experience at DV and the students I had, even though I’ve had some characters over the two years,” said Donohue.

The amount of dedication Ms. Donohue put into making her freshman students have an amazing experience is phenomenal. Many of her past and present students wish her all of the luck in the world.