Staff Profile

Karina Churchill - Teacher / Service Coordinator

How long ago did you join The Friends' School?

In May of 1999, I started as a part-time teacher of English in the High School. That quickly expanded to full-time the following year, teaching most English year levels and optional subjects in the High School and at Clemes until I moved overseas at the end of 2003. I then returned in 2008, again on a part-time, temporary basis, and gradually expanded back to full-time teaching. In total, I have been teaching at Friends’ for almost 17 years.

What was your favourite thing about this year?

Working with students and staff to develop a strong Service Learning focus has been a highlight. The gradual shift to foregrounding student service ideas and concerns, and to working with community partners rather than being driven by philanthropy, has been rewarding.

When did you know you wanted to become a teacher?

Growing up I never had a clear sense of ‘what I wanted to be’ as an adult, like other children. Instead, I made choices to pursue my interests, my strengths and my passions - even going to university to study these disciplines - before focussing on where I could take those skills. I recall seeing a careers chart in the third year of my undergraduate degree, outlining skills and interests, and possible occupations that used those characteristics, and realising then that I wanted to be a teacher. I enrolled in the first cohort of the Postgraduate bachelor or Teaching for the following year.

Where is your favourite place in the world?

Having travelled quite a bit between 2003 and 2007, I can honestly say that there is no place like home. Tropical beaches and the architecture of old cities are amazing, but nothing compares to the serenity and equilibrium of knowing you are in the place where your friends, your family and your heart belongs.

Why Friends?

I applied for various positions as I was approaching the conclusion of my teaching degree, and interviewed at Friends' for a Humanities position. Not soon after the School advertised an English position, and the rest is history. I’ve also taught in other places, both in Hobart and overseas, and I’ve never experienced genuine collegiality like I have with the English Faculty at this School.

Who is your hero?

The popular culturist in me wants to say Wonder Woman, even though my Comic Book-loving peers would disown me for seemingly abandoning the Marvel Multiverse and jumping on the DC bandwagon, because I love Diana’ Prince's day job as a curator for the department of Antiquities at the Louvre, and her passionate sense of justice. The realist in me says Ruth Bader-Ginsberg. Her story and how she came to be a renowned Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is inspiring.