“I like being around people, and I had really great teachers growing up so I think I combination of all those things just put me on that path,” World History teacher Kimberly Outinen said about what made her want to become a teacher.

Outinen has two children and has been teaching at DHS for 16 years. Outinen teaches World History and Student Leadership.

Before she became a teacher Outinen got her first job at a store in the mall called the Locker Room.

“I was probably in my senior year of high school when I got this job,”Outinen said.

Through student leadership Outinen does a lot of fundraisers for the school and other organizations such as Kids Against Hunger.

“I have a great group of kids that I work with and they help me come up with new ideas, we also do things we’ve always done in the past, so we keep the tradition alive, but it always feels like we’re behind the eight ball with so many things to do and not enough time to do it, and somehow we manage to pull it off, almost always, not always successful, but that’s part of learning and we just really feel accomplished once that task is done.” Outinen said about the fundraisers with student leadership.

Outinen doesn’t have a lot of free time, but with what spare time she does have she likes to spend most of it with her family.

“I’m very family oriented, so both of my kids are always involved in some kind of extra-curricular, I play volleyball with Mrs. Kuznicki in the chemistry department, and I also love scrapbooking,” Outinen said.

Balancing her school life and home life is difficult and she’s always trying to figure out how to do it.

“I try not to bring too much home, but you can’t always help it if you have things you need to grade and that kind of stuff, but because my children are at an age where they need at home now too, so it’s difficult, but I try to at least set some mental boundaries and try to stick to them, I don’t always do well at that, but I try my best,” Outinen said.

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By: Anikka Thorson