Hawthorne High School alum, Joshua Kabrel, joined the HHS staff in 2009, found a passion for teaching, and is now a full-time teacher of history and criminal justice.
As for his first year teaching, Kabrel explains that adjusting from being a substitute and paraprofessional to a teacher is a little tough. “However,” he says, “I enjoy having my own classroom and being able to create lessons about subjects I am passionate about.”
Amber Vermeulem, a sophomore at HHS and one of Kabrel’s students, states, “As a new student to HHS this year, Mr. Kabrel is my favorite teacher. He’s very funny and all the work that he gives is extremely helpful.”
Kabrel is excited to teach both history and criminal justice classes. Kabrel, who graduated in 2005, says his interest for history peaked in high school. “I always found it interesting to know how we got where we are as a society.” Criminal justice is also a subject that has sparked his interest since he was younger and is something he wishes he had learned more about in high school.
While in high school, Kabrel was a member of the football, wrestling and baseball teams as well as a few clubs. “My high school experience was great,” said Kabrel. “All of the teachers played a part in preparing me for college, and all of the advice they gave me came in handy.”
Post-high school, Kabrel attended Rutgers University in Newark with a double major in history and criminal justice. When he first started substitute teaching at HHS, Kabrel says that is when he realized teaching was something he saw in his future. Instead of going back to college to take teaching courses, Kabrel took an “alternate route” which allows a college graduate to take courses to receive a teaching certificate. “I decided to do an alternate route because I knew some other successful teaches that had gone down that path,” says Kabrel.
“It was a little challenging to find a job at first, but I am very happy to be in Hawthorne teaching where I grew up,” says Kabrel who is happy to finally be giving back to the school that gave him so much.