Leah Nass

Teaching, Coaching, Adulting

Leah Nass—she’s the one wearing sunglasses—says one of the biggest surprises about her call as a teacher, coach, and dorm supervisor at California Lutheran High School is the adulting suddenly expected of her.

“Some days I just scratch my head and wonder, ‘Wow. I have all these high school kids looking to me to make a decision and to constantly be a good example. No pressure.’ At only 24 years old, that much responsibility can feel pretty surreal.”

Don’t worry. She can handle it. While at MLC, Leah double-majored in elementary ed and secondary life science ed, she coached high school students in volleyball and track, and she took herself to London for a little study abroad. This teaching, coaching, and “dorm supe” stuff—like making sure kids get up on time, finish their homework, do their chores, and eat—she’s got it.

And she loves it. “It might sound cliché, but I genuinely enjoy getting to know and helping the students,” she says. “For starters, the students help me grow as a person and a teacher, so helping them is the very least I can do to say ‘thank you.’

“More important, in one year of teaching, it has become very clear to me that each student has been uniquely crafted by God. Not that I never knew that before, but talking with them, laughing with them, teaching them is just like this awesome, daily testimony of God’s creativity, power, and abundant grace.”

Though she’s only been at Cal Lutheran a short time, she already knows that she enjoys counseling kids, helping them sort out their lives, even more than teaching them in the classroom. So she’s started an online master’s program in school counseling at Concordia University Wisconsin. “This will be a useful dynamic to add to my ministry,” she says. Already she applies the new psych concepts she’s learning to her classroom teaching style.

As you consider your post-high school options, Leah understands the conundrum: “It’s tough figuring out the rest of your life at 18. I myself never knew if I wanted to be at MLC until maybe sophomore or junior year of college. I wasn’t sold on being a teacher—even while I attended MLC—but I don’t regret attending for a second. I was given so many opportunities to grow as a person and grow in my faith so I could be better prepared to share that gospel message in non-classroom situations.

“Regardless of the career path you choose,” she continues, “God will work through you and give you countless opportunities to fulfill this exciting calling we all have as Christians. We make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

That’s some remarkably adult advice.