History teacher Jim Chin, now at Burlingame High, keeps in touch with his former students

Standing in the history wing, 2016 alumnus Farbod Moghadam held a bouquet of flowers in his hand, a few weeks before senior prom last spring. Former World Geography and World History teacher at Saratoga High Jim Chin stood right beside him, holding a poster that read “We met in Chin, so let’s go for the win.”

When the bell rang, 2016 alumna Larissa Chiu walked out of the classroom, shocked and overjoyed to see both her friend and her former history teacher standing before her.

“It was a huge honor to have Mr. Chin help with my prom asking, especially since he lives so far from us and had no obligation to help out,” Moghadam said. “It was just really nice to see him again and be able to enjoy one more fun experience with him before leaving to college.”

Both Moghadam and Chiu participated in an effort to petition the school to reserve its controversial decision to not offer Chin tenure in 2013, a document that Moghadam estimated got 500-600 signatures. In fact, Moghadam’s pun for the asking was derived from the name of the petition “Chin for the win.”

Chin now teaches history at Burlingame High School and lives in that city. Even though Burlingame and Saratoga are about an hour’s drive apart, Chin said the schools are fairly connected.

“It’s a small world — some students at BHS have relatives and friends at Saratoga,” Chin said.

Even though he doesn’t teach here anymore, Chin still keeps in touch with students like Chiu and Moghadam through his teacher Facebook account as well as email. Chin received a few heartfelt  letters from former students, which he calls “one of the most touching gifts you can receive.”

One of the students that Chin still keeps in contact through Facebook messenger with is senior Sarah Jin, who was in his World Geography class during freshman year. Jin recalls many instances in the class where Chin made history really interesting for her and her fellow classmates.

One time in his class, current senior Zach Grob-Lipkis tried to bribe the state of Israel with a five-dollar bill in a stimulation. Another time, the class dissected “Arabian Nights” from Aladdin to analyze racial and cultural stereotyping in Disney movies.

Jin was sad to see Chin leave. But every year, Jin sees Chin at the annual Stanford Model UN Conference in November, which she says is a great way to catch up with her old teacher.

“In sophomore year, we had a soccer game at Burlingame High School and Chin came out and got to say ‘Hi’ to all of us,” Jin said. “It’s great to still see him around.”  

Although he hasn’t made an appearance on campus since Moghadam’s prom asking, Chin plans to catch up with some of his past students at one of the jazz band performances this year.

“I am privileged and lucky enough to still feel fairly connected with students,” Chin said. “One of the upsides to social media is being able to see all the wonderful things the seniors — many of whom I taught as freshmen — are up to and marveling at how much they have grown as young adults!”