Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/134761
Upper school math teacher Neelamjit Dhaliwal took a circuitous route to teaching and landed at Latin School through a series of coincidences and accidents of fate. After high school, Dhaliwal went to the University of Illinois to study electrical engineering, but she switched her major a few times before settling on a degree in mathematics. Upon graduating, she was unsure of the next step and settled on law school. It was only when her older brother pressed her on why she wanted to become a lawyer that Dhaliwal took a closer look at her choices. "It was like an intervention," said Dhaliwal. "I realized for the first time in my life that I can't make decisions because they look good or sound good. I need to do something I really love." To Dhaliwal, that means working with people and being of service. She was drawn to education because of its power to transform lives. Both her mother, a professor, and her grandfather, the first education minister for the state of Punjab after India's independence, had devoted their lives to education. "I saw in my own family the difference an education can make," she said. Dhaliwal's father, who emigrated from India on a student visa was able to provide his children with "At Latin I am enjoying collaborating with multiple colleagues in my subject area. The collaboration has helped me to look at old lessons in a new and creative way." 28 L AT I N M AGAZINE access to numerous opportunities. Meanwhile, her father's sisters came and began working as farm laborers. Their children went to schools in underserved communities. "Their lives couldn't have been more different than mine and it really came down to access to quality education," she said. Wanting to make a difference, Dhaliwal decided to become a teacher. She started her first teaching job at the Chicago Public Schools' Peace and Education Coalition Alternative School Program in the Back of the Yards neighborhood; the school serves students who have been out of school. The first two years of teaching were difficult. Many of Dhaliwal's students were traumatized by the circumstances of their lives. Some came to class angry, depressed and in crisis. And, while many were bright, they usually had more immediate priorities than doing well in algebra. "I began to understand that if I really cared for these children, I could not take the hardships they brought to the classroom personally. I saw that their anger or disrespect was not about me. As soon as I realized that, it changed everything. Those students shaped me greatly and taught me how to be a good teacher," she said. At Peace and Education, Dhaliwal's convictions about the importance of access to education strengthened her desire to want to be part of the national conversation. To do that, she felt that she had to experience other school settings first. Latin, however, was not on Dhaliwal's radar when she happened to accompany a friend to the Independent Schools Diversity Job Fair in