After 36 years of teaching and 30 years at SHS, science teacher Kellyann Nicholson will be traveling and spending more time enjoying other pursuits when she retires at the end of this school year.
Over the years, Nicholson has taught Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Life Science, Earth Science and Chemistry, making a big impact on the campus through her teaching and school spirit.
Growing up in San Jose and graduating from Silver Creek High, Nicholson majored in biology and psychology at UC San Diego, getting her teaching credentials at San Diego State. For the first six years of her career, she taught at Mira Mesa High in San Diego.
Nicholson later moved to Santa Cruz and taught at SHS after her husband, a roller coaster designer, got a new job in the area.
She also coached the SHS track team and helped redesign the new science building in 2001.
Early in her career, Nicholson was a teaching advisor to biology teacher Jenny Garcia.
Originally wanting to become a cancer research scientist, Nicholson used to wash dishes and make solutions in a cancer research lab while in school. However, after watching what the scientists did on a daily basis, she decided research was not the career path she wanted.
She also had a fun tradition of joining other science teachers every year to participate in the Halloween costume contests held in the quad together as a group.
A memory she will look back to was when the physics students built trebuchets and catapults in previous years. To test their aim, they would launch water balloons at teachers who were the targets.
“Ms. Cochrum and I would dress up in raincoats and safety goggles with umbrellas and pool toys to heckle the students,” Nicholson said.
One of her favorite parts of teaching at this school were the students, she said.
“They come to school ready to learn and are not afraid to work hard,” she said.
Nicholson also loves her co-teachers, eating lunch with them every day.
“We eat lunch together and have cakes for everyone’s birthday — that’s a lot of cake,” she said. “I will definitely miss eating lunch with my peeps.”
Nicholson also enjoyed participating in school events with them. In 2006, she played flag football on a team with history teacher Jerry Sheehy and Health/Driver’s Ed teacher Amy Obenour. She also dressed up as a turkey in the Turkey Trot run hosted before Thanksgiving.
Nicholson always appreciated the SHS campus culture as a great place to work with motivated students. Still, she sometimes worries about the amount of stress the students have had to deal with in recent years.
“I wish I had a time machine,” she said. “And I could take them to their high school graduation, and show them that everything is going to be OK!”
Once everyone gets back to school in August, Nicholson and her husband plan to travel to Africa to go on an 11-day safari with planning help from science teacher Lisa Cochrum. She also hopes to spend as much time as possible babysitting her great niece and nephew.
For years, Nicholson was a serious marathon runner, and even ran difficult races such as the Boston Marathon, though she had to stop running due to health reasons. These days, she is still passionate about the outdoors and spends her free time gardening, walking, hiking and camping. She also loves to spend time at home binge-watching British TV shows.
But even with her hobbies, memories and plans for retirement, she says the thing she will miss the most is being around her students.
“I will miss interacting with teenagers. They are the reason I got into teaching,” she said. “They have kept me young all these years.”
