Growing up in Northville, Matt Fields never found himself that interested in science. He became a climbing instructor his freshman year of high school, and continued instructing for five years. He has always loved the outdoors, and began climbing at the age of seven.

Throughout his time at Northville High School, Fields didn’t take the time to appreciate the resources being given to him. During his junior year of high school, it only took two lessons of him being present and paying attention for him to realize that science was something he wanted to dive into. He considers this realization “life changing.”

“Science is something that I’m super passionate about and I love being able to wake up every day and talk about it with people,” Fields said.

After high school, Fields started attending Schoolcraft College then the University of Michigan. He knew he wanted to teach and continue working with science. He is majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry, and plans to get a teaching certificate in both.

As a process of gaining his teaching certificate, he was placed randomly at Community High School as an assistant teacher. During his time here, he has learned more than he ever expected to.

He learned a lot about what it means to cultivate and work in a school culture that is very open. He describes the student body at Community as “really special.” This and the relationships he has developed with the students makes waking up at 6 a.m. something that he is excited for.

He also learned lot about fostering relationships with students and fellow teachers. Fields believes this is very important for his career. He wants to be the teacher that is there for the students and there to advocate for them, and Community has helped him learn a lot about that.

“I just want to say that I hope that the students that I’ve worked with and have been able to connect with know that they can always reach out to me for anything, whether that be science related or life related,” Fields said.

Graduation is approaching and it has come time for Fields to leave Community to continue on with his career plans. Fields is not yet sure what he is doing after this. He got a job offer in California and one in Baltimore. He has also applied for a work visa in London.

He describes choosing his next step as “daunting,” because he is deciding where he wants to live for the next four or five years of his life. He knows he wants something different. He wants to go somewhere that he can learn a lot about other people and other environments, and is being careful with his decision of where to go and what to do.

To Fields, working at Community has been “phenomenal.” Being able to work with the student body and being able to do the things the school has allowed him to do has made this an amazing experience for him.

“I can honestly say that I am going to miss every single person that has been in every one of my classes so much and I am so confident that they are all going to go on and do amazing things,” Fields said. “I’m very sentimental about this school and I just love the student body so much.”