Ms. Williams is the new English teacher for Forms II and IV. She has a very warm, welcoming, and nurturing personality. As a child, Ms. Williams loved reading, learning, and exploring nature. She was the fifth child in a family of seven. She grew up in a house her father built on the St. Joseph River in Bristol, Indiana. She says that living in a place so in touch with nature instilled in her a love for the outdoors. Ms. Williams wasn’t always a teacher.

Previously she held jobs in the fields of marketing, law, accounting, and medicine. After teaching religion for a little while she realized that teaching was her calling in life. Before coming to Cistercian, she taught at Corinth Classical Academy and Immaculate Conception Catholic School. However, she is no stranger to Cistercian as she attended college across the road at U.D. One of the hallmarks of someone who has read quite a few books is the difficulty answering the question “What is your favorite book?” Ms.Williams, however, has a creative answer: “Whatever I’m reading at the time becomes my favorite book.” When asked, “Which one of the many books that you have read has most radically changed your perspective on life,” she answered, “The Imitation of Christ by Thomas á Kempis because it describes how to be a good Christian from a very deep perspective.” Asking about her favorite author received a more decisive answer. “Charles Dickens is one of my favorite authors because he is a master of character descriptions. No other author can describe a scene with such detail and make it so vivid.” She does concede that occasionally his “masterful” descriptions can get a tad excessive. Ms. Williams is very relatable to a Cistercian student because like many of us she struggles with both geometry and chemistry. Also, like many of us, she has a pet, a dog named Koda. She also loves camping, although she admits that she does not get to go out as often as she did when her children were young. Instead of going out and camping she prefers to bond with nature in a different way–gardening. She is also a tried and true American. When asked “If you could live in any country other than the United States, where would you live?” she could not answer. She said that no other country has such a variety of landscapes and climates as the United States does, and as nature is so important to her, she just would not feel right living anywhere else.

Ms. Williams is a wonderful, well rounded, and personable individual. Students taking her English class think she is a wonderful teacher. William Coulter (Form IV) said, “I really like how energetic and enthusiastic she is during class,” and Xavier Currlin (Form II) said, “I like how we do a lot of activities in class.” I think it is safe to say that the students of Cistercian are very excited to have another great