Where are they now? Rachel Masters
We recently reached out to invite some of our alumni to be part of a special spotlight series to help us honor the legacy of the past 25 years and inspire the next generation of Ridgeview students. Rachel Masters (Class of 2019) shared that one of the best things about Ridgeview is how intimate the community is. During her time at Ridgeview, many teachers influenced her, but one in particular had a lasting impact on her career path.
“I attended Ridgeview K-12, graduating as part of the 2019 class. As a five-year old who would rather have skipped school and hung out with my grandma instead, I was not convinced that Ridgeview was the place for me. Then it was my first day, and I met Mrs. Bennett, the best kindergarten teacher ever. She changed my mind about school, and I am glad she did. After all, Ridgeview was where I made my lifelong best friends, Logan and Miranda, who are still both active parts of my life today and were just in my wedding party last June. Plus, had Mrs. Bennett not changed my mind about school, then I would never have got to meet awesome teachers such as Mrs. Jhones, Mrs. Schmidberger, Mrs. Fox, Mr. Mackovich, Mr. Collins, and all the middle and high school teachers that I would list but I always go over my word count (as they know).
I know few people who remember the names of all their teachers and trust me when I say that it is the teachers that make the school. Ridgeview was where I met the teacher who had the biggest impact on my and my younger brother’s careers, Mr. Rhead. When Mr. Rhead came to Ridgeview with a wealth of knowledge from his career at Hewlett Packard, the computer science program was small. As a member of his first class, I had the privilege of helping him develop the curriculum and teach others in the classroom, two skills which led me to work for years as Lead Teaching Assistant at Colorado State University. Then, that teaching position led me into computer science research with CSU and the University of Minnesota, which led to multiple national and international awards and is still a huge part of my life today as I am finishing my Ph.D. in computer science at CSU while working as a software engineer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. (In fact, one of my co-authors on many of my publications was also a student at Ridgeview, and I meet people often both at CSU and HPE who have worked with Mr. Rhead in the past. Small world!)
When I was at Ridgeview, I defined my good life as a life lived for God. Ridgeview gave me the skills to think critically about and defend my Christian faith, which I use daily to deepen my faith through various Bible studies, discussions with scholars, and service activities in my community. However, it was only after leaving Ridgeview that I realized that one of the most beautiful things that God has done in my life was putting me in the path of many teachers and lifelong friends at Ridgeview. One of Ridgeview’s best qualities (in my opinion) was how intimate the community was, yet even now that I am in much larger communities, I can see the impacts of Ridgeview teachers and students on people I meet who have connections there. I aspire to have similar impacts on my employers, peers, and mentees as I embrace lifelong learning, teaching, and service to my community.”
