New math teacher Catherine Cooper draws on her experiences of learning math in high school to teach Geometry and Trigonometry & Analysis. In her free time, Cooper enjoys running and spending time with her boyfriend’s dog.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you like about teaching math?

I have three sections of Geometry Honors, and I am teaching Trig Analysis for juniors. In my high school sophomore year, I kind of struggled in math, so working closely with my teachers was what gave me the confidence of, ‘Oh, I can do this!” It really is having those experiences with students and building their confidence, because no one is a math person or not a math person. If you try and put in the work, you can do it. I like helping students with math. That’s a subject that some people tend to kind of shy away from [or] get a little nervous about, so hopefully I can give them a positive experience.

What is your hope for your students this year?

All of them are 9th graders in my geometry classes, and I know everyone is coming from eight different schools, so really my goal is to give everyone the skills they need. Right now, everyone is in different places in terms of what they’ve learned before, so I want to give them that solid foundation to move forward.

Did you do a sport or other extracurricular in high school?

I did track in high school and college, and I really love the sport. I was mainly a sprinter and mid-distance hurdler, so I did indoor and outdoor. My main event outdoor was the 400-meter hurdles and my main event indoor was the 300-meter. Then, senior year I moved up to the 600-meter. My senior year, I trained for indoor by doing cross country. I’m definitely not a long distance runner; it was challenging! I was a lot better at sprinting and mid-distance, so it was interesting to go from potentially winning races to ’Okay, yeah, I’m just going to be in the back for this one’.’”

Did you do anything fun over the summer?

I took care of my boyfriend’s family dog a lot while his parents were working. He’s a puppy, his name is Milo, and he’s an Italian waterdog, Lagotto Romagnolo. I would say I’m a dog person. I’ve never had my own dog, but I would love having a dog someday in the future.

Which celebrity would you spend an entire day with?

I’ll choose Taylor Swift. I think she got big when I was in middle school with her first couple songs, like “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Our Song.” It’s interesting watching her progression as I grew up too, from 11 years old to now. Like, there is still stuff that’s relatable! It’s just interesting to see her wide range of fans and how prominent she has been all these years. She’s just so massive, so that would be pretty cool.