Credit to Faith Smith

Most teachers know exactly what their teaching path will look like from the beginning of their college career. They may know what they want to teach, or even what grade. Most don’t start as archeologists on the other side of the world, and most don’t have multiple jobs before teaching.

“I went to college for archeology and did a year of postgraduate studies in forensic archeology in Scotland, and then made a career change,” Renae Dorius, North’s French 1 and 2 teacher, said.

Dorius worked to finish her archeology degree by studying and working sites in Jordan and Scotland. In Jordan, she worked on a site on the Adair Plateau, next to the Petra monument. To help preserve the monument, her team was excavating a ceremonial pool.

“The problem is that there’s canyons, and when the heavy rains come this spring, they gather and flood and erode the monument,” Dorius said. “We were re-excavating the pool so that the water would gather there, rather than erode the monument.”

But this isn’t the only job Dorius had before teaching. Her next job was less about what she wanted but what she thought she needed.

“I’m very introverted, and so one reason I decided to become a missionary for a year and a half is to help me grow in that way, to be more comfortable with people, and that’s for sure been helpful as a teacher,” Dorius said.

Her missionary job took her to Tahiti, a French Polynesian island near Australia. While away, she taught English and religious classes to local children. Dorius also picked up on the local language.

“If you’re wanting to learn a language, there’s no harder or faster way to learn a language than immersion,” Dorius said. “French is the main language that is spoken, and I did learn some Tahitian. I learned French in high school, and then in Tahiti, I mostly spoke French for that reason.”

This helped and led her into her next job of teaching French at a St. Louis city school and eventually North. While she may not be able to talk to everyone from Tahiti, the Tahitians have left an impact on Dorius, who uses some forms of learning in Tahiti to help her students.

“Everyone [Tahitians] takes care of each other, doesn’t matter how much they have to sacrifice and spread the money and food around,” Dorius said. “So, they are very warm, and they’re very demonstrative, and they’re very conscientious of making sure everyone’s got a roof over their head and food to eat. So, I do really miss that.”