Hopkins Welcomes New Faculty (continued)

The third installment of faculty profiles.

Jordan Sebastian ’11

Where did you grow up? I grew up in New Haven, CT.

What is your academic background? Hopkins class of 2011 and URI class of 2015. Right now, I am in graduate school.

What courses are you teaching? I do not teach; I work in the Athletic Office.

Who has inspired your life most, and why? My most inspirational person is my mom, because she is the hardest working

person I have ever met.

Name a book that has impacted you. You should all read the book Venus, by Suzan Lori Parks.

What is your favorite animal, and why? My favorite animals are dogs because of my pitbull, Buster.

Kathy Chavez

Where did you grow up? I grew up on the north side of Chicago, Illinois.

What is your academic background? I went to Lane Technical High school in the city of Chicago. I then attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. I started my college career thinking that I wanted to be an accountant, but decided to change my major junior year to mathematics and education. After teaching for a few years, I got my M.A. from Depaul University in Chicago.

What courses are you teaching? I will be teaching two sections of Math 20 and two sections of Math 35. I will also be teaching Volleyball, and I will be an assistant coach for indoor track and a seventh grade advisor.

Are you a sports fan? As a Northsider, I am an avid Cubs fan. When growing up my grandparents lived 3 blocks from Wrigley Field and we would go to as many games as possible. (When I was young, no one went to Cubs games and you could easily get cheap seats.) I also love hockey and the Chicago Blackhawks as well as every other sports franchise in Chicago. Growing up I was a swimmer, basketball player and cheerleader. In my old age I have rediscovered running and ran the Chicago Marathon last fall. I have run over 10 half marathons and will be running at least two more this fall.

What has been your most embarrassing moment as a teacher or student? Oh goodness! After almost 23 years of teaching there have been more than I can count. The most recent might be this summer while I was teaching a sports class in the middle school (seventh and eighth graders. We were playing basketball and one of the kids kept talking about how he was going to school me. You should know that I can be a little competitive, so when he drove to the hoop on me and pulled up for a shot, I blocked it. In my mind I thought it was very much Dikembe Mutombo-like, but when we went back to lunch my pinky was at least three times its normal size and still hurts five weeks later.

What particular “tidbit” should we know about you? I have a couple of tangential celebrity associations. When I was in high school, my German dance team was in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In college, I worked for Walter Payton for three years and was able to meet many sports celebrities of the nineties while working there. Finally, my friend from high school and college is Aimee Banghart, Simone Biles’ gymnastic coach.

Christian Multunas

Where did you grow up? I grew up in a small town called Schodack, NY, right outside of Albany, NY. I lived in the Albany area for my entire life and, at the age of 24, am now finally moving to a new state.

What is your academic background? I received my B.S in Applied Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and my M.S. in Secondary Education from SUNY Albany.

What courses are you teaching? I will be teaching AP Physics and Applied Physics.

What was your favorite experience as a student? When I was a Senior in high school, my AP Physics teacher gave us a midterm project titled “The Physics of....” in which we could pick any sport/activity/device/phenomenon and research the physics required to make that happen. Being a member of the tennis team, I chose the physics of tennis ball spin. As a part of the project, I constructed a tennis-racket-swinging contraption which would allow me to adjust the angle of impact, thus controlling the amount of back-spin or top-spin on the ball. This project is one that I will definitely incorporate into my AP Physics classroom.

What has been your most embarrassing moment as a teacher or student? During my student teaching experience, my students gave me a goldfish to keep as a class pet (my teacher nickname was Mr. Multunafish, so they deemed it an appropriate gift). After about a month with this fish in my classroom, I walked in one morning to see that the fish was missing from its tank. I enlisted my students to help me find my missing fish. By the end of the day, a ton of signs were hung up around school saying “Have you seen this fish?” with pictures of goldfish on them, and students throughout the school were all talking about my missing goldfish. Well, the mystery was solved the following morning when I walked in to my classroom to find a note from the school janitor saying that she found my fish dead on the floor after it apparently jumped out of the bowl; she flushed it down the toilet and forgot to mention it to me.

Tell us about a book that has impacted you, and why. One book that has impacted me is The Road by my favorite author, Cormac McCarthy. Even though this book, in true McCarthy style, is very dark and bleak, it carries within the central theme of fatherhood.

isha Hooks

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Aurora, Colorado.

What is your academic background? I came east to attend college. I earned my B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and my Ph.D. in American studies from Yale University.

What courses are you teaching? I teach one section of AC3 and three sections of AC2. I’m also the first researcher in residence at Hopkins. In that capacity, I’ll be collaborating with key faculty and staff, as well as students when appropriate, to put together a program and practices that will foster the pursuit of more extensive research opportunities throughout Hopkins. In addition, I’ll be pursuing my own research on the relationship between race and technology.

What particular “tidbit” should we know about you? I once had the opportunity to travel to China as part of a Yale delegation of 100 students, faculty, and administrators. We met China’s then-president, Hu Jintao, and later attended a banquet within the Forbidden City in a room where monarchs and other heads of state had dined.

Are you a sports fan? I come from a football family and a football town, and it would be unpatriotic, shall we say,

and grounds for disownment if I rooted for any team other than the Denver Broncos. Forgive me, the World Champion Denver Broncos.

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Hopkins Welcomes New Faculty (continued)