In terms of the seven original teachers at HCCPHS, Mr. Solano was the teacher that was put in the most unique position when he first came here. While the other six, Fey, Kelley, Quidachay, Jones, Antolinez, and Keinrath, had years of experience before coming here, Solano’s first year teaching was at HCCPHS.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better school,” Solano said. “This school reminds me of the project based high school I went to. When I was looking for teaching positions, and I read the blurb on what it was, I knew it was for me.”
It’s hard to deny that, despite being new to the game, he’s certainly made an impact on this school in these past three years. He has taught Pre-AP and AP Biology, and Pre-AP Chemistry, he started the video game club and two esports teams.
“I was very excited when I heard that the district was going to be funding various esports teams,” Solano said. “It was exciting to see something new getting recognized at the district level. Being able to play video games at school as a competitive team was something that I was interested in coaching.”
Solano loves gaming, an attribute that makes him a good fit for the esports coach position. This same passion he has for video games is also present for his job as a teacher.
“I never liked the idea of working at an office,” Solano said. “The idea of working for ‘X’ company and spending my day doing spreadsheets or analyzing data never appealed to me. I always wanted to do something where I felt like what I was going to do mattered, like I had some sort of agency in what I did. The natural extension for that was teaching.”
When deciding which subject to teach, Solano chose to teach science classes.
“I’ve always liked messing around with stuff,” Solano said. “Taking stuff apart and wondering why it’s like that. That’s the first question I always ask, ‘why?’ and that’s what science is, asking and answering that question.”
This curiosity led him to picking a major in college that he believes has every aspect of science in it, geology.
“Geology is simultaneously very old science, like physics and chemistry from Newton hundreds of years ago,” Solano said, “but it’s very new science, like when we discovered that there was actual geography at the bottom of the ocean during WW2.”
It’s clear that Solano has a passion for everything he does. He loves his job, coming in everyday to do it, and that love and passion is what makes him a great fit amongst the rest of our teachers.
