At the beginning of this school year, several new staff members began working on campus, according to an email sent out by MHS, Junior Osborn Wang, and guidance counselor Crystal Beltran. Among these new faces, one stood out in particular — Assistant Principal Andrew Dinh — whom many students may recognize as their middle school English teacher.
Coming in with 12 years of experience in education, and nine of them spent teaching at Thomas Russell Middle School, this will be his first year working at MHS, Dinh said. He explains that he wanted to take on a new challenge in an effort to grow more as a person.
”Something you always want to do is always to be challenged,” Dinh said. “You always want to learn new things. You always want to try new things. That’s what makes life great,” he said. “It’s how you become a new person, better than you were before.”
With his new role, Dinh’s initial attitude towards working as an administrator has not changed, Dinh said. He still believes it is a challenge at heart, he added.
“I’d like to think that the challenge is what I thought it would be.” Dinh said. “It’s very much like you’re juggling 18 plates at once.”
As with any career change, Dinh has experienced many changes in his work duties compared to his past role as a teacher, he said. However, he notes that many of the skills he applies in his day-to-day work are very similar.
“In some ways, it’s very much an extension of teaching.” Dinh said. “It’s very much people skills. It’s very much being organized. It’s very much community-focused. You’re part of the community, and now you’re the leader of the community.”
However, Dinh’s day-to-day duties are much more than “people skills.” Dinh is involved with student attendance and discipline, and is also currently managing both the English and English Language Development departments, providing assistance to any staff members as needed, Dinh said. His schedule also regularly includes meeting with parents and giving teacher evaluations on a rolling basis, he said. Despite facing challenges with taking on so many new roles, Dinh has received much positive support from the school community.
“Everyone has been very welcoming,” Dinh said. “I’m very fortunate to be at a school site where people have this kind of thing open to me to share how the school is run, the culture of the school, all the little operations and processes in place.”
According to a Social Science teacher at Russell who worked with Dinh, Stephanie Woodhams, he is hardworking and a great mentor to his students.
Outside of his work life, Dinh enjoys playing Dungeon and Dragons with his friends, playing video games, spending time with his dogs, and exercising, he said. In fact, he created a club during his time at Thomas Russell to play video games with students.
“He created the Smash Bros Club, where students could go after school (to) play or watch others play Super Smash Bros and, believe me, it was well-attended and often heated,” Woodhams said.
Junior Ela Aquino says some of her favorite memories of the Smash Bros club included building more connections with people who shared similar interests with her. Other students also found the club to be enjoyable, she said.
“I remember several TVs and Nintendo Switches being set up, and there were also regularly hosted tournaments that were a lot of fun,” Aquino said. “Even if you weren’t into Super Smash Bros, anybody who was into video games, in general, was welcome,” she added.