Growing up in Kentucky, one of our new English Language Learner and special education teachers Beatrice Underwood-Sweet wasn’t always planning on being a teacher, but to work in the world of publishing and writing.  

 “I wanted to originally be an acquisitions editor,” Underwood-Sweet said. “I wanted to find a way to get paid to read all day.” 

She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and participated in an internship at the University of Press. Underwood-Sweet decided to take a different path after determining she didn’t want to move to New York City.  

 “At the time I haven’t ever really lived in the big city…so I decided to go in a different direction,” Underwood-Sweet said.

With that different path being teaching, she moved to California and did her certification program. She lived in Los Angeles where Underwood-Sweet did ELL and special education at the same time. She has been living in St. Charles for around four and a half years now and worked previously at Lincoln Elementary school. She still has a big love for writing and loves to craft in her day to day life.

 “I like to say I have the soul of a little old lady,” Underwood-Sweet said. “I knit, I crochet some, and I sew more than anything else.”