Griffith’s new Spanish teacher, Mrs. Shana Chelich, who started on January 13, was originally an English major at Purdue Northwest before pursuing a Spanish degree. After minoring in Spanish, she found her passion and quickly changed her major to teach Spanish instead of English.

At the beginning of her teaching career, Mrs. Chelich taught at Merrillville High School for five years. She then began to teach at the old Hammond High School for five years, Morton for three years, and eventually taught at Hammond Central for one semester before teaching at Griffith, which, in total, she has been teaching for fourteen and a half years. Chelich had originally applied to Griffith High School at the start of the year, but the position was awarded to the previous Spanish teacher, Mr. Perez.

Chelich decided to teach at Griffith High School due to her love for the town. She had her first apartment in Griffith about thirty years ago, ironically located by the High School’s football field. She had fallen in love with the town and the kindness of the people who live in Griffith. Since starting her career at Griffith, the one thing that has stuck out to Chelich so far about the High School was how kind and welcoming the administrators have been to her. She also pointed out how well-mannered her students and colleagues are.

Chelich has a wide range of hobbies that she enjoys doing in her free time, including sewing, crafting, decorating, gardening, reading, and listening to music. She also loves to spend time with her daughter, who attends the University of Minnesota. She also loves to travel and has even visited Guanajuato and San Miguel, Mexico, to learn more about the culture and visit a school she was considering teaching at. In her Chelich’s years, she wrote articles for her school, and her favorite quote comes from John Muir, a philosopher, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul”.