As the new school year begins here at Hawthorne High School, everybody has been wondering who the new Chemistry and Physics teacher is. You may have seen him sitting at a student’s lunch table or just in the hallway, but his name is Mr. Victor Wu.

Clarion Writer: How long have you been teaching science?

 Mr. Wu: I have been teaching science for approximately fourteen years.  Everything from Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Earth Science and everything in between.  Well, Anything that’s not Biology.  Wu and Bio don’t mix!

Clarion Writer: Where did you teach before Hawthorne?

 Mr. Wu: I have taught at a few places, including in the UK, at both the high school and university level.

Clarion Writer: How do you like Hawthorne so far?

 Mr. Wu: I must admit that Hawthorne is a rather unique environment to me.  It is a small school, and both students and staff have welcomed me with open arms, and perhaps with a little trepidation as well…with my out of the box teaching style and approach to things.   Admittedly , I am thoroughly enjoying myself with my classes  and hope that my students do as well as we wander along learning Chemistry, Physics and how it relates to everything around us at the same time!

Clarion Writer: What inspired you to become a science teacher?

 Mr. Wu: To be honest, I kinda stumbled into teaching as a third career by accident.  I started in life as an engineer and became bored with it.  I was coaching at the time  and my old head coach suggested that I take a crack at it, given my odd background of engineering and theater.  I feel very fortunate to have had amazing public school teachers, with whom I still don’t feel I can compare to by a significant margin!  But somehow, I succeeded in becoming a teacher, and I am still doing this after all this time.  And I figure that as long as I feel that I can still get through to the students and be effective, I’ll keep doing it! And when that joy and energy is gone, I’ll know it’s time for me to move on to the next thing!

Clarion Writer: I hear you are a cross country coach… Where do you coach and how long have you been there?

 Mr. Wu: Hmm, Coaching Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor track for.. oh my.. over twenty years at this point.  In addition, I am also an official for Cross Country and Track at both the high school and collegiate level.  

Clarion Writer: Would you ever consider becoming a track coach at HHS?

 Mr. Wu: As for becoming a Coach here at Hawthorne – I think it would be best for me to get the teaching gig sorted out first before I can even thinking about Coaching here!! After all  if I cannot even do one job properly, I should not consider adding on more work, right?  If the opportunity came about, I would definitely give it a good thinking over though!  

Clarion Writer: Have you always had long hair?

Mr. Wu: As for my long hair, it kind of goes in waves.  I donate it when it annoys me,  as a function of having to deal with it.  Apparently, the American Cancer Society/Pantene folks really, REALLY like hair from people of my cultural background!  So I’ve donated it to them, and let it grow back, and literally, rinse and repeat!  The longest I’ve had it is  past midback, and the shortest is right under my ears.  The hair is also the source of my power.