Inside the walls of Emily Swank’s classroom is the perfect combination of laughter and learning. Swank teaches IB English 1 and Comparative Studies, aka Film and Literature.
She also leads the South Ski club and advises Poets Union, which has combined with SLAM. SLAM is South’s Literary and Arts Magazine which publishes student writers and artists.
After a fun interview with Swank, she shared advice for students, fun facts about herself and more.
In high school, Swank was a four-year varsity starter on the Central Crossing softball team and was a student section leader. Swank started playing softball when she was only four years old.
Apparently she has always had a talent for speaking in front of a crowd or group. She was the master of ceremonies for her school’s talent show and also given the honor of “most school spirit”.
Swank said, “I was wildly outgoing and I loved to do everything.”
As a member of the marching band, she played the baritone, but also the trombone in regular band.
She was also a member of Key Club because she cares about community service. By participating in so many activities throughout high school, Swank learned how to “build community”.
Swank shared her wish for South, saying, “I want everyone to feel like they belong and to have a sense of community and to have a sense of belonging no matter what that looks like.”
“I always wanted to be a teacher. I never had a backup plan,” Swank said.
She loves being an English teacher because she believes she has a special advantage to get closer to students over other teachers because she said, “I’m afforded an opportunity just given the content to connect with people in a better and more organic way. I know things that your math teachers don’t know simply because you’re journaling. It’s just the nature of it. I do appreciate the aspect of that being an English teacher specifically.”
Her favorite thing about Westerville South is the people. “Here everybody’s chill with everybody. I know the names of students I never had.” She said being at South has been a very family-like experience for her.
Students feel the same way. Junior Dorothy Miller said, “I would describe Ms. Swank as someone who is very welcoming, very kind and open to anyone’s opinions.”
Her favorite part about Swank’s IB English class is the community she creates in the classroom. “I feel like the class as a whole feels like a big community more than other classes. We’re always talking and connecting with each other in that class,” she said.
Junior Anastasia Michalek mentioned similar things. “I really like her roll call question of the day. She always asks really good questions, and she’s good at listening.” She also said, “It makes us feel like she actually hears us and cares about us. It’s a good way to start the class because it makes everyone feel welcomed.”
Swank elaborated on the journal activities she does for her senior film class. “I find students become very vulnerable. And the amount of students that go in all four years here and then write in their journals about how they feel isolated or lonely . I want to solve that,” she said.
Her biggest piece of advice for students is not to stress the grades so much. She said, “I have found as a teacher is that students get caught up in the points instead of the authentic learning and then you look back on your four years and all you did was check PowerSchool instead of being in the discussion or learning or like engaging with the text.”
Jokingly, or perhaps not, she said, “You should blow something up in chemistry man, like quit worrying about the points”.
Swank also emphasized the importance of taking advantage of the opportunities you are given in high school. Once you leave high school you often have to pay to learn new things.
“You don’t have to do that here. If you want to take ceramics and just want to learn how to throw a pot, you can do that here. If you’re sort of interested in psychology, think you might want to go down that path, then you can take a psych class. You can pursue your interests in this kind of risk free way that doesn’t break the bank,” she explained.
“Do the thing you think you want to do, and you’re going to find out if you’re interested or not, but then at least you’re not paying a tuition bill for it,” she added.
Her biggest piece of advice was to simply be true to yourself.
