Mr. Newton Quan, AP and regular physics teacher, left Cathedral during the last week of January in order to take a job at AEM Components, a global  company which manufactures electronic components. His position is that of a sales engineer. He said, “We build and sell high-reliability circuit protective components, basically high-end fuses.”

Mr. Quan started teaching in 2005 at the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad. He moved to Cathedral in 2012. Of his switch to Cathedral, Mr. Quan said, “I really liked the school and the teachers. Keeping in mind that Army Navy is an all-boys school, my first thought was: ‘The boys here are out of uniform, their hair is too long, and wait, there are girls here?'”

After the initial shock of the change, Mr. Quan easily settled into his routine as a physics teacher and began to connect to his students and fellow faculty members. “I have a lot of memories from CCHS, and most of them have to do with the relationships that I have built with the teachers and students,” said Mr. Quan. Though Quan admits he will not miss grading assignments anymore, he said he definitely will miss teaching. Mr. Quan said that he will most miss three things about Cathedral: the teachers, the students, and summer break. “The worst part [of no longer teaching] is not being able to build relationships with students and not seeing them every day,” he said.

When he left in the last week of January, Mrs. Marjan Rafie took over teaching his classes. Mrs. Rafie, a college professor at Grossmont College, was hired to replace Mr. Quan, but also was potentially going to teach the Calculus D class. Currently, she just teaches Mr. Quan’s regular and AP physics classes.

Many of Mr. Quan’s students expressed that it would likely take them some time to get used to a new teacher in the middle of the semester, since they were already accustomed to the way Mr. Quan ran his classroom. In particular, students in the 7th period physics class who had class with Quan almost every single day, said that they would certainly feel Quan’s absence. “I will miss Mr. Quan and so will my classmates, but he’s on to other things now – things that affect the world now, not just our community,” said senior Simon Lu, who has physics 7th period.

Upon leaving, Mr. Quan said, “I would like to leave [my students with] the importance of relationships and building community. Take the time to develop friendships and connections with other people, with family and friends.”