To Ms. Helen Baca, there is no need to be a famous character to be inspirational; what is only needed is the curiosity of learning. As the new teacher in the Chemistry department at Albuquerque Academy, Ms. Baca has kept her interest in learning from her early days in Chicago. “I always appreciate people who are curious about learning or who are just really good at a particular thing.” Ms. Baca says, “I feel like people that have, like, a passion and are able to express and excel in it, that’s like super for me.” Mrs. Baca lived in Chicago throughout her undergraduate years and taught undergraduate chemistry classes before. This is her first year teaching chemistry in a high school.
Due to the massive difference between the environment in Chicago and New Mexico, Ms. Baca has been keen on visiting vast areas of the state. She has visited White Sands and multiple northern towns such as Taos, Raton, and Santa Fe. Ms. Baca finds that “Every town just has a different feel” as she travels northern New Mexico to explore and look at art.
Art has been an integral part of Ms. Baca’s experiences as she was able to attend art school for a year until she changed careers to chemistry. The imperfections of her old art pieces convinced her to destroy them instead of selling them. Her curiosity for art is great but having the money to have food seemed much more appealing. That passion has now fostered her love of pie baking.
Ms. Baca’s current interest would be reading, especially what she considers well-written fiction. Besides fiction, Ms. Baca states, “I’m trying to read more non-fiction. I hear it’s good for my awareness of the world.”
Today Ms. Baca still practices the philosophy–or more like the art–of being curious. For example, Ms. Baca was disappointed to not find out more and ask questions about me, Matthew Rundle, the interviewer.