Helping to fill a void created the retirement of Anne Tomalin last year, Courtney Graves has been hired at Chapel Hill for the 2023-24 school year as a multilingual learner (MLL) teacher.
Graves was born in New Hampshire and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied Arabic Language & Literature. After graduating from Texas, she attended graduate school at New York University and received her master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies before attending graduate school again at University of California at Irvine.
While Graves did research work at University of California at Irvine, it was ultimately her role as a teaching assistant that led her to Chapel Hill High School.
“The teaching part was my favorite part of my job. I really wanted to be able to do that full time,” Graves said. “I’ve really just enjoyed helping people.”
In high school, Graves lived in Egypt for six months while participating in an exchange program. Graves has returned to Egypt several times and lived in the country for two-and-a-half years, as an English teacher.
“I used to teach adults who were living in Egypt in their own country—just for jobs or for fun,” Graves said.
Her experience teaching both adults and adolescents, here and abroad, has given her a unique perspective from which she approaches her job.
“[Being a teacher at Chapel Hill High School] is a really different job of helping people improve their language skills so that they can do well in school,” Graves said. “I think that teaching in high school allows you to know your students a lot better and I think adults, as they grow, can become a little more closed off.”
Graves’s relocation to North Carolina was prompted by her decision to move in with her best friend, whom she met in the high school exchange program in Egypt.
One of Graves’s colleagues, former Spanish teacher and now MLL teacher Jade Dickerson, said Graves brings a number of strengths to Chapel Hill High School.
“Ms. Graves is a delightful colleague!” Dickerson said. “She is positive, insightful and easy to collaborate with. She truly cares about the well-being of others. It is really rewarding to have someone who is basically learning all the same new things that I am.”
Graves said she has found enjoyment in her new role at the school working with her students and colleagues.
“I just love laughing. I like being able to laugh and have a good time while connecting with people while I’m working,” she said. “You don’t get that in every kind of job.”
