“I think at Manual the majority [of students] are more serious about their studies.” Ms. Shiroma said. “I really loved being a Bulldog, but I have quickly learned to love being a Ram even more.”

Ms. Shiroma, originally a World Civics and World History teacher for Millersburg Military Institute and a Latin teacher for Male High, has joined the duPont Manual staff this year. Since Manual’s long-time Latin teacher Ms. Livers retired last year, Ms. Shiroma gladly became Manual’s new one. Coming from Male High School, this is a big change for her. She has only been at Manual for a few weeks and she already senses a new, different vibe. “I have liked the more intellectual atmosphere here at Manual,” Ms. Shiroma said. “Go Rams!”

Teaching wasn’t even a job she really considered in the beginning. “Becoming a teacher was actually a big fluke. It is a long story, but basically I made a sarcastic remark about becoming a Latin teacher to a stranger who turned out to be the head of the Classics dept. at UK. Two months later, I was in graduate school.” She took a one-semester intensive course and then entered the graduate courses. “I wouldn’t recommend the method,” she says. Latin isn’t the only language Ms. Shiroma knows though. She has also learned Greek through school– the usual way.

Like any other teacher, she has her own social life that students would hardly believe. Ms. Shiroma enjoys riding horses and back when she was at UK, she was on the Polo team for a semester, but sadly the team dissolved soon after. As well as equestrian activities, she loves gardening, cooking, and hunting deer and dove.

Accompanying the new school year were 11 new teachers in a range of magnets and academic departments. This story is part of a series about each of them.