New face in the library

Sometimes it’s hard to get to know every new face in our school. Like for instance, did you know we have a new library support staff member? Her name is Kathleen Berry and she just took over for Ms. Wolfe last Tuesday.

She spent most of her life living on the northwestern coast, but when her husband, who is in the coast guard, was transferred to Cleveland it was a big change for her.

“I spent my entire life living in the Pacific NW; I grew up mostly in Portland, Oregon, but have also lived in Southeast Alaska and Seattle, WA,” said Berry.

She attended Portland State University where she received her Bachelors of the Arts in Political Science. Berry added, “I wanted to study linguistics, and actually studied Spanish for many years. But I stumbled upon Political Science by accident and was fascinated by how deeply - and often invisibly - even the smallest of political entities shape our everyday lives.”

After that she moved on to Willamette University College of Law where she received her law degree, “Law school was a natural next step from my B.A. Although practicing law was not really my cup of tea, I loved law school, especially how it completely changed how I view and think about the world,” Berry stated.

When college was done Berry pursued a wide variety of jobs, “After college, I worked for neurosurgeons; I even got to observe a few brain surgeries! Most recently, I was a 911 operator and police/fire/EMS dispatcher. Finally, I spent some time interning for a county-level local government, and working as a judicial law clerk in Ketchikan, Alaska.”

After all of these jobs it may seem strange that Berry ended up here at Aurora but she explains, “After four years as a stay-at-home mom, I decided it was time to return to work. Although I am not a teacher, I felt a strong calling to serve the education community in any capacity I could. In that vein, I substitute taught at JAG (James A Garfield) schools for the past six months. When I saw that Aurora was hiring, it seemed like a perfect fit!”

Though she is not technically a librarian because she did not study library science Berry says, “I love to learn, and I highly value access to educational materials. Plus, creating and maintaining systems of organization is honestly lots of fun for me.”

While there is much more to know about Berry she ended with, “Please, feel free to stop by the library and say hello. It’s great to get to interact with students and staff!”