Ms. Zolton dissects past

The students of Del Val may know Ms. Zolton as their biology teacher who loves the brain; while she does love the brain, and always has an interesting fact brewed up, she is her own person outside of the classroom. 

Zolton has been teaching at Del Val for 4 years, but she didn’t start college with the idea of teaching. 

“I never thought of being a teacher when I was in school,” Zolton said.

High school for Zolton was nothing less than it was for any other kid. She was an athlete and a scholar at the same time, much like the students at Del Val today. She participated in sports like cheerleading, baseball, softball, skiing, snowboarding, swimming and gymnastics. 

While these sports were spread out throughout her life, she definitely had a lot on her plate. Sadly, Zolton dropped out of sports in the middle of high school to continue focusing on her education. 

“In high school, I regret that I didn’t take school as seriously as I should have,” Zolton said. 

After being in college for several years, she realized that the career path she had wanted to study when going into college wasn’t for her any longer. Her teacher had offered up the idea of pursuing something like teaching since she had always helped students in other science classes. She enjoyed tutoring so much that she thought that teaching was for her. 

“I applied to grad school on a whim, and I got in,” Zolton said.

With becoming a teacher in mind, she wanted to be the best teacher she could be, and with that, she went on to grad school. 

While science is her specialty, she has always thought that teaching literature would be so much fun.

“I think it would be really fun to teach literature. I love reading and I would love to have discussions with students,” Zolton said.

 She really loves having discussions in class, and students who have had her will know this passion due to the discussions on various topics often held in class. 

“I remember I loved psychology. I loved it. I don’t know why I didn’t major in it,” Zolton said. 

Zolton ended up majoring in neuroscience. The brain had always interested Zolton, even when she was younger and as a freshman in college. She finds ways to talk to her students about the brain and manages to tie it all together with what the class is learning about, which is an impressive skill to be able to discuss something you love while also teaching students. 

“I don’t ever regret teaching,” Zolton said.