Teaching linear equations to high school students proves not the only passion for Cathedral Catholic’s newest addition to its math faculty, Miss Kelly Scaramella.

A Uni alum of the class of 2001, Miss Scaramella grew up in San Diego. She participated as a member of the Campus Ministry and the Ambassadors for Christ Corp. In high school, she also took interest in volleyball, water polo, babysitting, teaching swimming lessons, and the swim team, of which she was the varsity girls captain.

“I was a hard worker,” she said. “I always took the honors and AP math classes, and I was very busy in high school.”

With many extracurricular activities, Miss Scaramella’s love for working with children never ceased and, in fact, developed quite early.

“I’ve always loved working with kids. I really could relate to them,” she said, “and I just got along really well with them.”

After graduating from Uni, Miss Scaramella attended the Univeristy of Southern California where she received a business degree. However, after completing college, Miss Scaramella assessed that business was not her true passion.

“I quickly realized sitting in front of a computer all day, doing Excel spreadsheets and research for other people was not very fun.”

So, she decided to pursue another route and received a multiple subject and math credential, as well as a masters in education from National University.

Although new to Cathedral, Miss Scaramella maintains experience within the typical school scene, and so far she prefers teaching high school students the best. She has engaged in education at all levels in the San Diego area -from kindergarten, to elementary, to middle school- and she even was a substitute at Francis Parker High School.

And then Cathedral called. “I wasn’t totally sure what to expect since it [Cathedral] had changed since I’ve been here, but all the kids seem really nice, and the teachers are really helpful.”

Despite her teaching job, there remains some distinct aspects of her life that set her apart from other educators. In her free time, Miss Scaramella teaches Zumba fitness classes at the University of California at San Diego as well as gym classes at 24 Hour Fitness. She has been teaching gym classes for the past five years, while she is fairly new at Zumba with only one and a half years under her belt.  The name of the program that she teaches at UCSD is Fit Life and her gym class at 24 Hour Fitness, a barbell strength class, is named Body Pump. She also cycles and was formerly involved with kickboxing.

Just as fitness acts as a strong emphasis to her life, so does motivating students to stay on the right track to eventually become successful. She hopes to do so in her Beginning Algebra and Algebra 1 Advanced classes this year with her new Cathedral students. “I would like them to realize that math is not as hard as sometimes students build it up to be,” she said.

In the end, whether it be coaching a Zumba class or finding the slope of an equation, Miss Scaramella, an educator and fitness coach focused on others, singles out one wish;

“I want to share my talents, and take already what I am good at to help other people.”