Some may know her as a new Spanish teacher, some may know her from before, some may have her as a teacher at the moment, some might not even know who she is; no matter how you know her, know that Ms. Reuck is someone who is passionate about what she does.
The biggest thing that fuels her passion for teaching is being able to make connections and form relationships with her students throughout multiple years, and she finds it hard for her to do what she does because of that point. She said that she “hasn’t had a student for more than several years in a row.” Ms. Reuck then goes on to explain that “when you’re a teacher, most people don’t teach because they love the content. Yes, I love Spanish, all of my students know that, but the ability to see students for several years in a row forms that relationship that teachers are really there for.”
How did Ms. Reuck get to this point of choosing Spanish as the means to a connection with her students? Ms. Reuck was born in Pierz, Minnesota, a place that she likes to call “the middle of nowhere.” Her father was an animal veterinarian, and just like Ms. Reuck, he would move around from farm to farm to aid animals that needed assistance. There was one challenge that he faced while working on the farms, and it was that a lot of the workers spoke Spanish. Having a language barrier at a place of work can make the job extremely difficult, so her dad had to learn the basics of Spanish to communicate with his workers.
With this newfound knowledge of Spanish, her dad taught the language to Ms. Reuck and her sister. Ms. Reuck then fell in love with the idea of learning another language. This new interest developed even more when in 6th grade she got into professional tennis, and liked a Spanish player named Rafael Nadal and wanted to know even more about Spanish and the country that Nadal was from.
From that point on, she pursued Spanish as a profession and is now teaching it to Mayo Spartans to share the same experience that Spanish gave to her.
Growing up, Ms. Reuck involved herself a lot in her school. Some of the activities and clubs that she was involved in included tennis, Spanish club, National Honors Society, and marching band, jazz band. If that were not enough, she was also involved in a group similar to TOPS that we have here at Mayo, and with all of those activities and all of her courses under her belt, she graduated in 2014.
Once Ms. Reuck finished high school, she went on to college to study math and Spanish, but she quickly realized that having a double major was way too much stress. So she decided to just major in Spanish. Ms. Reuck graduated from St. Cloud University, and is finishing her masters degree at St. Louis University, which is in Madrid, Spain.
She is going on to fourth year of teaching and says that she wouldn’t want to do anything but teach as her profession.
Some of her other interests that aren’t school-related include video games, playing board games and cards, as well as taking walks to enjoy the scenery. She also meets up with friends to play pickleball.
Ms. Reuck ended with some wise words of encouragement especially aimed for her freshman students, but everyone can benefit from taking this to heart: “Trying your best isn’t your best when it’s hurting you– best doesn’t mean perfect.” – Raelin Reuck.
