Wildcat Spotlight: Jessica Voutsinas

History teacher Jessica Voutsinas is a new staff member at Deep Run High School. She studied music and anthropology at two different colleges before receiving her undergraduate degree at Ithaca Conservatory and attending the University of Virginia for grad school. She started teaching in February of 2020 and tutored students in reading and history. Although Voutsinas has always had a passion for history, teaching was not her first career. Ethnomusicology, the study of music and culture, was something that Voutsinas found a liking for, and was an Arts Administrator at the Boston symphony.

   “I started my career as an orchestra manager and saw myself as the CEO of an orchestra,” Voutsinas said.

    Teaching at Deep Run is her first full-time job as a teacher after completing her student teaching requirements at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville. 

   Voutsinas has had experience with all age groups, as young as first grade all the way up to college students. 

   “Teaching high school students is interesting because I think you guys are going through such a unique phase in your life right now,” Voutsinas said. 

   For Voutsinas, being a teacher means getting to see her students grow and develop as people.

   “I would describe being a teacher as fulfilling because I like to see you guys think critically and figure out your own ideas and opinions,” Voutsinas said.

   Voutsinas finds that being able to help students figure out the world they live in is interesting because someday they will be the ones in charge of it, allowing her to show her appreciation for history and education through her teaching.