This year at Salida High School, many new teachers joined the SHS family. Among them is the new Algebra I teacher and JV volleyball coach Molly Collins. Collins is so excited to get to know both the students and staff at SHS.

“I am so excited about living in Salida, meeting new people and working with students,” Collins said.

Collins grew up in Loveland, Colorado near Fort Collins. After graduating from highschool, she attended Western State University where she received a degree in Liberal Arts along with a teaching license. In school, Collins was involved in student government and played three sports.

Collins  said, “I really enjoyed school, I loved all the opportunities, […] I really liked being a part of the school culture.” 

She has always enjoyed math and science. In school, she loved doing the different experiments in science class, and she particularly enjoyed anatomy. 

“Algebra was always one of my favorite classes, and anatomy was cool because we got to dissect a cat. Which sounds really sad, but we got to dissect in that class, which I found fascinating,” Collins said. 

Collins has many hobbies including reading, sewing, mountain biking, running and trying new restaurants around town. One of the things Collins enjoys is playing team sports like volleyball or basketball with friends. She loves to spend time with her dog, Millie. Collins is also interested in getting back into activities she used to enjoy, like skiing, and learning new skills, like fly fishing. 

Collins grew up around educators since her mother was a Spanish teacher. However, she didn’t always want to be an educator, she also considered the medical field. After doing intern hours at a school, she decided to switch her major. 

Collins loves being able to work with different personalities and seeing how students think and work differently. 

“I love being able to see students grow and athletes grow confident in the skill that they learn and being able to face a challenge head on and then even if it takes a long time to learn it, eventually overcome it.” 

Collins said the greatest challenge she has as a teacher is providing equal opportunities for different personalities because all students are different so they learn in different ways.

“My biggest advice is to not be afraid to try something new even if you fail at it […] you either get the experience, meet new people, and most times you surprise yourself. Take a risk because if we stay in our safe little bubbles, then we don’t grow as humans,” Collins said. 

Collins is very excited to be here at SHS. As well as being new to the school, she is also new to Salida, and she moved here just as the school year started. The last school she taught at was in a city, so there were different interests and demographics compared to in Salida.

“There definitely was more diversity there. And I would say there were less sports like mountain biking and golf that seem to be kind of popular here,” Collins said.

Collins can’t wait to leave her mark here at SHS and the student body looks forward to seeing her grow as a teacher and a person.