English, Leadership and Service Commission teacher Bethany Li has been teaching for 20 years, including 12 years at Burlingame.
Next year, Li will serve as an assistant principal at La Entrada Middle School in Menlo Park. She said she is ready to learn a new set of skills and make a larger impact on a wider school community.
“I did some reflecting in the last couple years about just feeling ready to have an impact on how a school community operates on a system-wide level, as opposed to a classroom-specific level,” Li said.
Li attended Santa Clara University for her undergraduate studies and did not realize she wanted to teach until midway through college. Because her mother was an elementary school teacher, she originally wanted to find her own career path outside of teaching. However, after studying abroad in London, Li realized teaching was the right career for her.
“I studied abroad and interned in Teach First, which is the UK equivalent of Teach for America, and that planted the seed for wanting to work in a classroom,” Li said.
After starting off in Los Angeles as a Teach For America teacher, a non-profit organization that places teachers in under-resourced schools, Li decided she wanted to continue teaching.
“I tried it out, I enjoyed it, and I stuck with it,” Li said.
Li said that one aspect of teaching she especially enjoys is meeting new students each year.
“I love that teaching is always new and energized because you’re always around a new group of learners every August,” Li said. “You have a set amount of time to do the best you can to support meaningful learning and help them meet their goals, and then I get a chance to start fresh and do it all over again the next year.”
In addition to teaching English and supporting other teachers as an instructional coach, Li stepped up as the adviser for leadership and Service Commission after Nicole Carter became dean in 2023.
“I hope that I have left systems behind that empower student leaders to make a meaningful impact on having fun and feeling connected at Burlingame. So that’s kind of my leadership legacy,” Li said. “I hope in English, I’ve left a legacy of being open to feedback and trying new things.”
According to Li, she will remember the people and memories made at Burlingame.
“I think fondly about class conversations where students have said really insightful things, lunches with my colleagues in the English department,” Li said. “What I will remember most is the people, the jokes, the shared connection over the work that we love to do together.”
