Alex Palilunas is a computer science teacher with over 20 years of experience. Having grown up in Maine, Palilunas came to Brookline for many reasons, one being its strong focus on equity and inclusion. Outside of teaching, Alex plays guitar, collects basketball cards and plays tennis.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What inspired you to become a teacher?
Before I met my teacher role model, I would always get a good feeling by helping people out and seeing their success as a result of my help, and that’s essentially what teaching is. As I was going to college and developing myself as an educator, my role model was one of my statistics professors who made learning high-level math so accessible to me. He made these high-level abstract concepts seem so tangible to us.

What is one hope or goal you have for your students this year?
A hope and goal for my students is that they see what they’re learning as more than just answers to a standardized test but to really see that the ideas we’re going over and learning in class are relevant to the world.

Has anything stood out to you in these first few weeks of school?
The feeling that everybody is on the same team here, both students and faculty. And you really feel that rather than just hearing the words “we’re on the same team.”

What do you like to do when you’re not teaching?
I have a lot of hobbies and interests that rotate. Something that is always consistent is some type of game, whether it’s a mobile game or a computer game. Also, I love playing music; I play the guitar and bass guitar, so whenever I hear a song or get some inspiration, I’ll dive into that. I also have been collecting basketball cards since I was 8 years old and have a pretty robust collection.

What’s something unique or surprising about yourself that your students might not know yet?
In college I was a decathlete on the track and field team. I did high jump, pole vault and all the events in the decathlon.

How do you like to unwind after a busy school day?
Going to hit some tennis balls on the courts is very relaxing. It’s a good way for me to get out of my head and be in my happy place. It allows me to compartmentalize and forget all the things that are going on besides the felt ball that’s in front of me.