Brooke Miller is just beginning her life as an official high school teacher at SCHS.

Miller’s days begin at 5 a.m., and after commuting to work, she arrives ready to teach high schoolers about the economy. Though this may seem like a dull subject to some, Miller loves sharing her passion for any branch of social science.

“It’s just kind of fun to see how students realize that the economy is at play in their life all the time,” Miller said.

Miller is not entirely new to SCHS, however. Last year, she was a student teacher for Mr. Caserta, where she taught U.S. history, government and economy. Now Miller is in charge of her own classes, teaching world history and economy. During the second semester, Miller will teach government instead of economy since both are one-semester classes.

“It’s totally different,” said Miller about having her own classroom. “Everything is yours. It’s fun.”

Through her polite, articulate speech, Miller conveys a sense of relatability. Like many of her  students, Miller loves TV. She is a big fan of “Game of Thrones” but watches just about “everything.”

Miller grew up in Washington, where she completed her undergrad at Seattle Pacific University. After earning her bachelor’s degree in history, Miller moved to the Bay Area, partly because she has family here and also because of the weather, describing the weather in Seattle as “really rainy and kind of depressing.”

But her main reason for moving here was “to have a new experience.”

Also eager to have new experiences traveling the world, Miller likes to spend the school year saving up for trips to new places. Just last summer, Miller went to Mexico City to visit family, but Paris was her favorite destination.

Miller summed up her extensive list of dream travel locations in one word: “Everywhere.” But Italy and Greece are on the top of her list.

As a teacher, Miller has found that at the end of the day, when all the students have cycled in and out of her classes and the last bell has rung, her feet hurt. Her reason: “I love shoes, but I don’t wear practical shoes.” Miller said. She loves “anything with a heel.”

But Miller firmly believes that the joys of teaching outweigh the pain of sore feet.

“Honestly, I’m super excited to be teaching at Santa Clara,” Miller said. “The students are wonderful. The staff is wonderful. I love it.”