During my mentor interview with Victoria Rutherford, I learned she has been teaching at Ensign Peak Academy for four years. She teaches British Literature classes in the high school.
When COVID-19 happened, she sought for an online private school for her kids. She needed something for her children to attend. So while she was trying to get her kids into Ensign Peak Academy, she applied as a teacher as well.
Now that we have a little bit of background, let’s continue my mentor interview with Victoria Rutherford.
What do you love about your subject? Tell us about how you became interested in that subject.
I have always enjoyed the big questions in life. Literature, as well as all types of art, focuses on what it means to be a human and have the human experience. Reading can be a vicarious act. It is so interesting to take on someone else’s choices. That way, a reader can learn through someone else’s experiences without bearing the full weight of those consequences. Using our agency to act is a requisite way to learn in this life, but we can also gain some experience and wisdom by proxy through reading.
I loved To Kill A Mockingbird when I was younger and asked my dad what other books were out there that asked questions of the soul. This is the kind of love I like to bring to my students.
Why did you decide to become a teacher?
I see it as a vocation or a calling. I didn’t decide to become a teacher, but I just felt it was always part of who I am. I did it at first as a side gig to learn what I wanted to do with my life. I feel the church wants everyone to be a teacher and I learned later that I was suited to be a teacher. I taught at the MTC and also taught to put myself through graduate school. After all of that experience, I realized that teaching was for me.
How did you become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? What does that mean to you?
My mother was inactive and my father was a non-member when I was born. My mother began going back to church when she started having children. I was baptized when I was 8, which was a year after my father got baptized. All of my siblings are still very active in the church. I attribute all the growth we had as a family to having a skeptic as a father, who eventually would be converted.
I feel like there is a specific job for me to do and I don’t know why I have this amazing blessing in my life. The gospel informs everything that I do. Every day I pray that I can be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. God only knows what it means that I am a member of the church right now. I am just grateful that I get to play a little part of being in the gospel on this earth. I feel so blessed to be on the Lord’s team and serve in any way that I can.
I like to see the big picture in things. I am extremely humbled to be a member of the church. I long to share it.
Tell us about yourself and your family.
I love to learn. At heart, I am a curious person and enjoy learning.
My family consists of me, my husband (he’s a convert and joined before we got married), our two sons, and a dog. I like to read and run. I like to sing and participate in a local choir. I consider myself a bit of a romantic (from the Romantic era). I love nature and love to be in nature.
Where do you live?
Eugene, Oregon
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to be in nature and run. I want to travel anywhere and see family.
What is something unique about you?
I talk to trees. Again, I love being in nature.
What hopes do you have for your students?
I hope that they find a friend in Jesus.
That concludes my mentor interview with Victoria Rutherford.
Victoria teaches High School World Literature. If you want to learn more about Ensign Peak Academy’s high school courses, click on the link below: