We students often think of our teachers as only having one career path, but some in the Pascack Valley High School community have had surprising jobs in the past.
In this article, there are the stories of six teachers who have had career experience in fields nowhere close to education, and teachers who’ve worked around the world.
Angie DeLima
One of PV’s Italian teachers, Angie DeLima, used to live overseas. Before she started teaching Italian, she lived in Dubai, working in the luxury hotel industry.
“I was in the preparation of becoming a professor. I wanted to go teach at a university,” DeLima explained. “I had a master’s in Italian studies, but I had a bachelor’s in business. So I was always dabbling in both worlds.”
DeLima shared that when she moved to Italy, she got married and put the teaching world aside to go into business.
“I was working in the hotel industry, but at that time, I had my first child. I was starting to realize that that world was taking over the balance of my life of being a mom and being able to work,” said DeLima.
Eventually, this led to applying to a university to teach Italian. It was there that her passion for teaching grew.
“When I was doing that job, I realized how much I loved teaching. So I was like, man, this is what I think I want to do now as a full-time job,” conveyed DeLima. “So when we moved to New Jersey, I decided that I would leave the business world behind and pursue teaching full-time.”
Looking back at the past, DeLima shared that at her old job, she would sometimes get to stay nights at the best hotels in the city. Although she misses the free perks of working in the hotel business, she explained that teaching is what she loves to do now.
“I think I’m gonna see [teaching] to the end until I retire,” said DeLima. “I think teaching is really where my passion is now.”
Jimena Ladino
Spanish Teacher Jimena Ladino has been at PV for nine years, with her 10th year coming up in September. But before she began her teaching career, she was a theater actress.
While living in Colombia, Ladino attended drama school for four years. As she made her way to the U.S., she worked with a company in New York City where she would perform in both Spanish and English.
“The whole point was kind of…to bring literature and Hispanic culture to other audiences in New York City,” she explained.
Ladino shared that she thought she would be a theater actress for her whole life. That was until she started teaching theater to kids in Hackensack through a nonprofit organization.
“I found myself completely happy [teaching kids]. Like fully happy,” said Ladino. “At the same time, I was [also] performing, and one night,… I was just about to get on stage, and I realized that I was not excited anymore.”
After that night, Ladino explained that her love for theater transformed into a love for education.
“I don’t think theater is in my heart,” explained Ladino. “I kind of fell in love with education.”
At last, she decided to complete her master’s degree in language education and started her journey as a teacher.
Connor Quinlan
One of PV’s history teachers, Connor Quinlan, had always intended to go into history as his career. However, when he first graduated from college, he began by doing internships in various specialties.
“I did a bunch of internships in marketing, public relations, [and] advertising,” said Quinlan. “I got a job at a public relations company that did healthcare PR, so I worked with Bayer and Schering-Plough and all these big pharmaceutical companies, but I worked in an agency.”
While working in the pharmaceutical industry, Quinlan was located in New York City, and while in corporate PR, he was based out of Boston.
“I moved up… to a new firm, and I really didn’t like the job and really, really couldn’t imagine myself staying there. So, I actually started looking at teaching jobs, or rather teaching programs to go back to school,” Quinlan explained. “But I couldn’t make the leap to do that, and then the recession finally caught up to me, and I got laid off.”
After losing his job, Quinlan went back to school and got a teaching position at St. Mary’s High School with Leah Jerome, another current history teacher at PV. He eventually made his way to PV when Jerome told him about an open position.
Quinlan shared that although he misses traveling to different places and being at events, he did not find the job interesting or engaging enough.
“The idea of sitting in a cubicle for the rest of my life was just not for me,” said Quinlan. “I always say it was rough getting laid off, but it was definitely the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Argine Safari
Music Theory and Choir Teacher Argine Safari wasn’t always a teacher. She used to be a musician with a performing career.
However, even before she was a performer, she graduated from college with a degree completely different from the world of music and performing.
“I graduated with a business degree. I have a business and finance degree,” Safari stated. “I started working in a financial company, as an advisor, on Wall Street.”
She explained that after working as an advisor on Wall Street for a short period of time, she moved on to working in an insurance and travel company.
When Safari grew tired of insurance, she eventually worked her way back into performing, where she worked with professionals and adults at a theater company.
“It was so exciting for me to work with younger people,” said Safari. “I really loved the energy and all of that. So that made me think that I really could enjoy working with younger people.”
Before the theater company, Safari wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue teaching full-time, but she started considering it after the experience. The deciding factor for her to work at Pascack Valley was that she was able to come home in the evenings and take care of her two children.
Safari also mentioned how Pascack Valley was her first and only high school teaching job.
“I never thought I would spend 20 years in this school. When I first came here, I was like, let me just give it a try,” said Safari. “[But] looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. [Everything has been] just an amazing experience.”
Kieran Walsh
Before Kieran Walsh became a photography teacher at PV, he taught at elementary schools and got his master’s in special education. But even before that, Walsh worked at a design studio in the city.
“I was working at this place called Lipman Studio in the city, and we had clients like David Yurman, Sam Edelman… basically luxury real estate, luxury jewelry, that world,” said Walsh.
In addition, Walsh explained that he shot photos for Victoria’s Secret models like Candice Swanepoel, Gisele Bündchen, and Naomi Campbell.
“We did a shoot with Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye the Science Guy,” explained Walsh. “Then we did a son [and] daughter campaign where it was children of famous people. Tom Hanks’ son was one of them, [and] Bon Jovi’s son was one of them.”
On top of everything, before Walsh worked at Lipman Studio, he worked for the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which is how he actually met David Lipman. When he worked for the CFDA, he would do behind-the-scenes shoots for fashion weeks.
Walsh then started his return to PV during the pandemic, when he realized he wanted to make a bigger impact on the people around him.
“When you start getting further in life, and you start thinking like what do you want to do… [you realize] that this lifestyle is definitely better for the young,” Walsh said.
After he stepped away from the studio, he went back to get his master’s in special education, which eventually led him to the path towards being a photography teacher.
“It just made sense to go back for this,” Walsh conveyed.
Craig Yaremko
PV Band Director Craig Yaremko has always had a passion for music.
He originally taught at Holdrum Middle School for 14 years, but before he started his full-time teaching career, he used to be a freelance musician and would perform on Broadway.
“I got to do all sorts of different things: playing saxophone and woodwinds,” said Yaremko. “But on Broadway, [I] played in concert halls [and] did some touring and traveling with different artists.”
Yaremko stated that he decided to start his full-time teaching career in order to have a steady paycheck, even though he was already teaching on the side.
“To be honest, it started out very practical as like, this is nice to have a steady paycheck… But now that I had a very consistent teaching schedule, it kind of lured me to teaching,” Yaremko stated. “Knowing that I would get to continue to work with students who were really excited to play music… was really inspiring for me to lead that position.”
Additionally, he shared that his familiarity with the students is what led him on his path to teaching at Pascack Valley.
“So knowing that I would get to work with students who were really excited to play music, who had talented skills that could be showed off, really [inspired] me to lead that position,” explained Yaremko.
All of the teachers at Pascack Valley bring experiences from their past to students who are figuring out what path they might want to follow. Whether they are unheard of or well known, everyone has a different story to tell that may inspire someone else.
