Christopher Martin

Connect Tell us why you became a teacher

I became a teacher because I believe education has the ability to intervene into the lives of young people. I believe the active process of learning can interrupt the malaise of living in the 21st century and awaken students' curiosity to new ways of being. It is a joy to help others emerge ready, empowered to explicitly impact the inequities in their worlds.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

In 2023, I asked my 12th grade IB Literature class to read Bryan Stevenson’s "Just Mercy" just before we joined the African American Heritage Walking Tour in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster was a city of resistance post-Emancipation Proclamation and home to Thaddeus Stevens, a radical Republican and leader in the abolitionist movement. Although this unit took students to the darkness, at the center were model leaders who exposed injustice with the light of truth and reason.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I believe developing strong thinkers, dreamers, and writers will outlast our time in the classroom. Therefore, I’d like to collaborate with my English Dept. on how we could use these funds to build a regionally recognized writing program and graduate strong student writers, ready for an ever-changing future.