While doing my mentor interview with Jennifer Shaw, I learned a lot of interesting facts about her.
Jennifer has been teaching for a little over three years. She teaches chemistry and has also taught financial literacy.
Jennifer has known Ensign Peak Academy Director, Diann Jeppson, since she was looking for options for schooling for her kids when they were young. She was teaching for another online school when she saw something from Diann about a trip to the Holy Land. She ended up going to the Holy Land at the last minute and Diann asked her to teach the following year.
In addition to teaching chemistry, she is very involved with the travel program at Ensign Peak Academy. She has attended tours, managed logistics, and been assistant tour director on various tours since 2021.
Those tours and events include the following:
American & Church History Tour
Youth Wilderness Adventure
Holy Land and Egypt tours with Anderson Travel
She has also been a tour guide and taken students on Freedom RoadTrek & Living History Tours that she created through Anderson Tours.
Without further introductions, this is my mentor interview with Jennifer Shaw.
What do you love about your subject? Tell us about how you became interested in that subject.
I had two high school chemistry teachers, but neither of them taught the subject. They both had us read the book to learn. I ended up teaching myself about the periodic table and how chemistry works and was fascinated by it. That first teacher took me to amazing chemistry demonstrations at the University of Utah. I ended up applying there and was lucky enough to get scholarships. I have an engineering brain so chemical engineering was a great choice for me, and I love chemistry. I’ve been able to do several amazing jobs in chemical engineering including, working with explosives and making computer chips. But I retired to be a mom.
My love of chemistry comes from it being everywhere in our lives. I’m curious about the things around me. I do experiments all the time to figure things out and I do experiments with everyone, including my kids, nieces, and nephews.
Why did you decide to become a teacher?
I became a teacher because of my kids and their special needs. I taught my kids, then in homeschool co-ops and then in private schools. It is way more fun and rewarding to be a teacher than it is to be a chemical engineer. I want to help kids learn to do hard things.
How did you become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? What does that mean to you?
My parents are converts. My grandmother was a really good Christian person. My mom loved the gospel and my father was really impressed with my mom. He said she felt like “home”. He really wanted the family to have that in their lives. So they raised their kids in the church.
The gospel means everything to me. I don’t know who I would be if I didn’t have the gospel in my life. I could have made different decisions like some of my friends and could have easily gone off the path. Having the Holy Ghost helped me make wise choices and helped me to have stability and happiness. The gospel is really the rock in my life.
Tell us about yourself and your family
I have been married for 31 years. I met my husband in a dance class at University of Utah. I like teaching ballroom dance classes. We have adopted three children, but we’ve also “adopted” a local girl who is deaf. We have also been foster parents.
We’ve gone through a lot as a family. You never know what is going to happen at our house. There is no story you can come up with that we haven’t gone through.
Our oldest daughter is married and she gave us a grandbaby and I love being a grandma!
Where do you live?
West Valley City, Utah
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to travel. I love to explore the world God made for us. Learning new things is also a favorite of mine. I like helping kids go places. When you travel to a new place and remove yourself from “normal” distractions like your phone, there is a change of heart that happens. When you go back home you are changed inside. I love to help kids gain confidence in themselves and make those types of lasting changes.
What is something unique about you?
I love to work with youth! In addition to teaching and traveling, I spend a lot of time volunteering with youth in various youth organizations. I was a boy scout leader for 20 years and a 4-H leader for 20 years. I have served for many years at various times in our ward and stake Young Women and Primary organizations in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I also spend a lot of time working with my non-profit, Deepen Your Learning, helping youth earn money for travel (past 10 years), and leading tours throughout the world (past 8 years).
I am currently “The Huntress” for Heroic Youth Summit and have been volunteering in that organization for the past 15 years. Heroic Youth is an organization designed to prepare youth to be faithful warriors in God’s army. Part of that preparation involves learning about and fighting against Satan. The Huntress and Lord Koldar are the physical representations that the youth get to practice fighting against.
What hopes do you have for your students?
I really want them to know deep within themselves that they are amazing and that they can do hard things through Christ.
This concludes my mentor interview with Jennifer Shaw.
Jennifer Shaw teaches as part of the High School curriculum. If you’d like to learn about the high school curriculum, click on the following link: