Growing up, Kristen Hamilton never imagined that she would become a high school math teacher.
Hamilton spent most of her childhood in San Diego after her dad took professorship at UCSD. Hamilton, who came from a family of engineers and had a strong foundation in math and sciences, knew studying engineering would be a natural fit for her.
She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at UCLA in 1999 and settled in Morgan Hill, joining the workforce as an applications engineer for KLA-Tencor, a Milpitas-based company supplying inspection tools and solutions.
A large part of Hamilton’s job was travelling internationally to instruct clients on how to use inspection tools. Hamilton, who is fluent in German, spent three months working in Germany and also often traveled to countries such as Taiwan for weeks on end.
In 2002, Hamilton had her first child, Kathryn. She recounts one experience where she had planned to go to Texas to visit Texas Instruments. A few days before her trip, her husband, who worked for startups as an engineer, had to travel to Korea. With no one to take care of the baby, Hamilton was left with no choice but to part with her child for a week, leaving her child at her parents’ house.
“I just decided that wasn’t really going to be a good thing,” Hamilton said. “It couldn’t work out unless I got a nanny, but I don’t want anyone else raising my kids, so that’s when I opened up to teaching.”
Hamilton’s mother was a high school English teacher, and her father had transitioned from being an engineer in industry to becoming a college professor. Her parents pushed for her to consider becoming a teacher as a way of having a more balanced life while still doing important, challenging work.
After spending four years at KLA-Tencor, Hamilton started teaching at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill in 2003 on an emergency credential — a permit designed to fill a vacancy when no suitable, fully qualified educator could be recruited. In late 2003, Hamilton gave birth to her second child, Tyler.
Hamilton attended National University’s San Jose, the closest location to her home, and San Diego, when her family visited her parents during the summer, locations to obtain her teaching credential. After balancing between teaching during the day and taking night classes, she obtained her full teaching credential in 2005.
In 2007, Hamilton began teaching at SHS, where she received higher pay and benefits than in her previous district. Initially, she commuted from Morgan Hill, but later her family moved to Los Gatos. While her kids were young, Hamilton would drop them off at the clubhouse at Foothill Elementary and rush to SHS for first period, which used to start at 7:50 a.m.
She started out teaching Geometry and Algebra 2 at SHS. Throughout the years, she has also taught Algebra 2 Honors, Precalculus, Precalculus Honors, Calculus, Sequential 2 and TrigMath4, the last two of which are no longer offered. Hamilton became math department chair in 2019 and currently teaches Precalculus Honors and Calculus.
Her children later attended Saratoga High, but her son, Tyler, switched to Los Gatos to play lacrosse. Kathryn graduated from SHS in 2020 and Tyler graduated from LGHS in 2022.
Both of her children are currently studying at Cal Poly SLO. Kathryn completed her undergraduate in biomedical engineering last year and is pursuing a Master’s degree. Tyler, on the other hand, is currently a junior majoring in computer engineering.
While she never saw herself as a teacher early in life, she says she is glad she made the career switch she did.
“I have had a bunch of students come back after the years to thank me for impacting their lives in a positive way, which is not really something that happens when you work at a big company as an engineer,” Hamilton said. “Overall, it was a great decision for me and my family, and I am so thankful that I was able to pivot my life when I did.”
