These profiles of new Unalaska City School District teachers were written by high school students in Rainier Marquez's photojournalism class. They have not been edited by KUCB staff.
Mr. Jacob Collins-Wilson is the new the junior high and freshman English teacher at the Unalaska City School.
He and his wife moved all the way to Alaska from Oregon. They’ve always had an interest in the wildlife of Alaska and dreamed about one day heading north. A great opportunity surfaced for them when Mr. Jacob found the opening at UCSD. He was attracted to the irony of the island’s name, so upon further research, he and his wife decided to take the chance. Mr. Jacob lists the merits of his new home, complimenting Unalaska’s diversity, supportiveness, size, and of course, the library.
Mr. Jacob attended multiple colleges. He received an undergraduate at Portland State University and went onto receive his Master’s degree in Arts in Teaching at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. Later on, he also received his Master’s degree in Fine Arts and Creative Writing at Syracuse University in New York.
Mr. Jacob is quite experienced in working in a different high school environment. He has worked three years out of mainstream high school, one year alternative high school, nine months in juvenile detention center, and two years at a university.
Initially, Mr. Jacob had no intention of being a teacher. “I wanted to be a rock star” he jokes. In reality he wanted to write or play music. He found teaching through coaching and now sees it as his future. “I need to feel useful in my life, I need to be helping or giving back or supporting the next generation in some way.” For Mr. Jacob, teaching is an art he is constantly perfecting. “I know that I'm going to continue to make mistakes, but I just hope that I'm making different mistakes and that I'm learning from the ones that I'm making.”