Marissa Mersch is a new special education teacher. This is her first year teaching and she “co-teachers three sections of English 1, one […] section of SE English 1, and [a] study methods” class. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her undergraduate, majoring in communication sciences and disorders which could have “gone two routes, the speech pathology route or the audiology route.” She always knew she wanted to be in a “helping profession” but did not decided she wanted to be a special ed teacher until she had an opportunity to work as a teaching assistant and was amazed by the resilience and positivity she saw in the students. Ms. Mersch is coaching girls freshman basketball here at West and is looking forward to coaching softball in the spring. She does not have a favorite class that she teaches as they are all unique and fun in their own way.