After graduation most students leave high school, never to return. For others, the relationships and experiences they made there continue to shape their lives long after they walk across the graduation stage.
Science teacher Sharon Diep was a freshman at MHS in 2010; she was a class officer while science teacher Dr. Letta Meyer was the class advisor, Meyer said. Eventually, Diep took Meyer’s AP Chemistry, Meyer added.
“I basically had her for all four years of her high school, in at least one aspect,” Meyer said.
Meyer has been working with Center for Talented Youth (CTY), a summer program for gifted students, through Johns Hopkins for years and in the middle of the semester she had a TA drop out, Meyer said.
“I started thinking through students that I knew were majoring in chemistry and I had seen Diep work with people,” Meyer said. “And so I just reached out and said, ‘Hey, we need somebody for like four weeks in the next week.”
Initially, Diep wanted to pursue a profession in medicine and did not think of a teaching career as an option, Diep said.
“While I was thinking about what else I wanted to do, Dr. Meyer actually reached out to me with an opportunity to work with her at a program called CTY,” Diep said. “During that time I was able to be a lab assistant for a chemistry class there, and I really enjoyed the experience.”
Diep went back to CTY the next summer, and decided that teaching was her passion, she said.
“I did CTY my sophomore and junior year of college,” Diep said. “When I was considering what I wanted to do for my senior year of college, I thought that teaching was calling out to me.”
Diep applied to Santa Clara University for graduate school, Diep said.
“I said, ‘If I get in, great – that’s my sign, and if I don’t, then it’s my sign to do something else,’ and I got in,” Diep said.
Diep completed her student-teaching at MHS as well, she said.
“I actually received a job offer for another high school during my application time before I realized that Milpitas actually had an opening,” Diep said. “Then I applied to the MHS opening, and I decided that I wanted to come back here because I do enjoy the culture that we have here.”
Despite knowing that Diep was initially not interested in teaching, Meyer knew that Diep could be a great teacher, Meyer said.
“When she left CTY, I did not realize the impact it had on her,” Dr. Meyer said. “ When I saw Ms.Diep interviewed for the position here, I found out that it had been a big pivot for her,” she added.
Diep and Meyer have a different kind of relationship now; it grew from teacher to student to collegial friendship, Meyer said.
“She teaches the chemistry honors program, and I teach AP Chemistry, so I get her students a lot,” Meyer said. “Sometimes it kind of shocks them when they do something, and I am like I know you didn’t learn it that way because I taught your teacher.”
It makes sense that Dr. Meyer taught Ms. Diep because they talked to each other a lot, junior Tresse Trong said.
“I feel like me being in both their chemistry classes shows the importance of being connected in my future career,” Trong added.
Despite Dr. Meyer having taught Ms. Diep in the past, they both have distinct teaching styles and personalities, Trong said.
“I think their teaching styles complement each other,” Trong said. “Ms. Diep’s class is really helping me this year, Ms.Diep went over topics broadly while Dr. Meyer’s took those concepts and now explains them further,” she added.
There are a lot of questions asking if it is weird to work with my former teachers, Ms. Diep said.
“I would say it’s not weird,” Diep said. “It’s actually nice being able to do that because I have those strong relationships now that I am able to continue.”
