Photo Courtesy of English teacher Sholeh Prochello.

With the new school year starting up at San Luis Obispo High School, a plethora of new teachers joined the staff.  One of which is, new San Luis Obispo English teacher Sholeh Prochello. Prochello teaches AP Language and Composition as well as American Literature. Expressions set out to get to know Prochello a little bit better. 

Expressions: You did your undergraduate degree in the arts: what prompted you to become an English teacher?

San Luis Obispo High School English teacher Sholeh Prochello: Well, after there were no jobs available in the arts, when I had finished my degree, because it was the recession, I had taken a class, right before I graduated, abroad I studied in Paris for a summer reading the literature of expats so Americans who had gone to Paris in the 1920s, and I just really loved those classes so much and I just thought, I want to do more of that. And so once I decided okay I’m doing more than I’m going to go to grad school, study literature as I was doing that I got the opportunity to teach while I was at Cal Poly and that kind of just solidified for me that I wanted to go into teaching.

Expressions: What’s your artistic medium of choice?

Prochello: So I did photography. I like to do film analog photography. So I’ll do medium format 35 millimeter, I have a bunch of different Polaroids and just toy cameras and they’re pretty fun to play around with and I mostly like doing portraiture, because of people.

Expressions: So what do you do in your spare time?

Prochello: In my spare time I watch a lot of Netflix, cuddle with our cat and I hang out with my family because my family lives in town. I have my best friend and her family lives in town and I like to go shopping when I can. I read, I should say that as an English teacher: that I like to read sometimes. I like to play some video games every once in a while, and love some “Stardew Valley” on my Nintendo Switch, my hot pink Nintendo Switch.

Expressions: So what brought you back to SLO county after you were living in San Diego?

Prochello: I was in San Diego, and I was doing an internship, down there, a photography internship and I couldn’t afford to live down there anymore by myself. And so I had lived with some family in Orange County, absolutely hated living in Orange County. And so then this was around the time I said I decided I would go to grad school and so I applied to Cal Poly. My family lives here so I was like, you know, I’ll come back here and I love SLO so I was really happy to do that.

Expressions: You were in the SLOHS Expressions newspaper class when you were a student here. So what was your favorite topic to write about?

Prochello: Well, the first thing I thought of was there was one time when I had been wanting to do this for a while and Nairne (SLOHS Journalism Advisor and English teacher Scott Nairne) finally let me do it, which was a water tasting review where I compare different brands of water because there is a difference and I really did not like, I think it’s called “Deja Blue” was my least favorite so I was just very excited to have the opportunity to reel against “Deja Blue”. And I got to do some other reviews. I remember I did some music reviews that were always pretty cool and I always liked to do stuff where we got to  interview students and just ask them a question or two and get really short answers and it was always fun to include that. 

Expressions: So what are you looking forward to most this year?

Prochello: I’m excited to have a full class of students again and get to know everyone and not have to look into the void of online teaching where I’m the only one saying anything and no one’s responding. So I’m happy to have that energy back in the room and be back at SLO high and just kind of be part of the campus culture.

Expressions: How do you plan to distinguish yourself among the SLO High staff, or do you plan to, propose any changes?

Prochello: For my first year I kind of just want to get a lay of the land, but I like coming up with big ideas. So I’m hoping to, you know, see where my place is on campus and then, see what comes from there. So no concrete plans as of yet.