Joe Van Deren
HS
Hello, my name is Joe Van Deren. I am from Ashland, Kentucky which is a small town in the Appalachian region of the United States. I received a Bachelors of Science in Engineering Science and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University in 2018. Upon graduating, I worked in sales for a year before moving to Morocco to begin teaching high school math. I was in Morocco when the pandemic began which was a difficult ending to an otherwise great first experience of teaching in an international school. During last school year, I moved home to spend time with family and obtain my teaching certification. SCCS is my first experience having a full course load and teaching AP but I am enjoying the students and classes very much! In my free time, I like to take long walks (to school from Blacutt), to play backgammon in the plaza, to do yoga, to paint, and to travel. I hope that I am a much better Spanish speaker after a couple years in Santa Cruz and that we have a high pass rate in AP math!
