Joann Fukuma – 1984 graduate

Joann Fukuma is one of Shorewood’s P.E. teachers and head of the Atheltics Department. She lived in Beacon Hill but attended high school in West Seattle due to the school district’s bus system. Nontheless, she found a community to be part of. “I did a lot. I was a three-sport athlete. So I played tennis, … I played basketball, and I played softball,” she said. Fukuma was as involved as she was athletic. She even became ASB vice president in her senior year. “One of my very good friends was the president, and so I said I would be her right-hand person. And I was involved in many multicultural clubs,” Fukuma said. After high school, she attended Seattle Pacific University and began coaching and teaching afterward. Her advice for making the most of high school? “I often tell people to get involved… play sports or join a club, then you can have really good friends after that – [and] a sense of belonging,” she said.

Lindsey Burrows – 1993 graduate

Lindsey Burrows, one of Shorewood’s Spanish teachers, was a very involved high school student. “I did swimming all four years, and I was captain of the swim team my senior year. And then my senior year, I was a cheerleader on the cheer squad,” Burrows said of her experience at Roosevelt High School. In addition, she was on the yearbook staff and the student government. During the summers, she worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor. Burrows says she was fairly well-known at her school. “For the senior hall of Fame, I was voted friendliest. I think I was pretty friendly. And I was also the seating chart ruiner. So I would sit next to anybody and talk to anybody.” Although her favorite class was Spanish, she never planned to become a Spanish teacher; rather, she wanted to be a lawyer. Eventually Burrows went to college in Washington, D.C. and ended up majoring in Spanish. She then got her teaching degree from the University of Washington and was soon hired at Shorewood.

Michael Zadra – 1987 graduate

Ceramics teacher Michael Zadra originally attended high school in Washington, D.C., in a combined middle/high school. “I didn’t like that, because when I was in middle school, I remember walking down the hallway, and some upperclassmen stuck gum on my face… And then I went to another high school in Nebraska, and I liked that one much better because it was strictly a high school,” he said. In Nebraska, he played soccer and varsity tennis and worked as a soccer referee. Zadra also started a juggling club, which performed at halftime shows and pep rallies for his school. Although he did plenty of art in high school, his initial vision for his future didn’t involve art, let alone ceramics. “I was really into cutting hair my senior year, and my friends would cut each other’s hair. For a while, I thought I wanted to be a hairstylist for the celebrities in L.A.,” Zadra said. “And I think some family members talked me out of going to beauty school for that.” he ended up going to college in Nebraska and majoring in art, and then pursuing teaching, which eventually led him to Shorewood.

Danny Wilks – 2002 graduate

Danny Wilks, who works in the Shorewood science department, grew up in Texas and attended La Vernia High School. Wilks was an active member of his community throughout high school. He was a part of several activities and sports, including NHS, a youth group, and track.”I was in NHS, science club, debate club, cross country, [and] track… I was active in my youth group and taught at Sunday school.” Wilks was a driven student and an all around bubbly person. He was liked by many of his teachers for being so outgoing. After high school, Wilks initially wanted to be a pharmacist. Throughout college, he was a pharmacy technician. “I realized that the fun part of being a pharmacist was not being an actual pharmacist,” he said. “It was being in tech.” Since that wasn’t the career path he wanted to settle for, he shifted his career path and majored in chemistry. Ever since Wilks made his way to Shorewood, he has shaped students into curious and passionate chemists.

Clark Youmans – 1986 graduate

From ACDC, to Blue Oyster Cult, and the Rolling Stones, Social Studies teacher Clark Youmans was a musically inclined, sports-engaged rock music fanatic of the 80s. Youmans attended high school in Corvallis, Oregon. “I was also involved in athletics: soccer, skiing, and track… my group of friends was pretty broad.” Sophomore year, he was also a part of his student council, with him and a friend as president and vice president. When Youmans began to consider future careers, his “dream” was to be a downhill ski racer. “I wasn’t dead set on it, and then I joined a team and found out there’s a whole other level of dedication.” After that dream was squashed, he considered education as a possibility. “My mom was an art teacher, and my dad had been a professor, so I’d always seen teaching,” he said. Youmans now enjoys working at Shorewood, along with his pastimes outside of school. You can catch him outdoors: cycling, river rafting, and fishing. He’s still rocking it with his love for music and the guitar.

Heidi Lewis – 2004 graduate

From being a cheerleader, to goth, to a self-described theater fanatic, Shorewood literature teacher Heidi Lewis had a diverse high school experience at Olympic High School. “I was a solid nerd throughout. And debate nerd, theater nerd, and just all around school nerd.” During high school, Lewis heavily considered going into a profession related to the medical field. She was encouraged to be a doctor. “I really wanted to be a surgeon, and then I realized that I had bad anxiety, and I was like ‘that’s probably not compatible.'” When Lewis continued on to college, she began studying to become a coroner, entertaining the medical field dream. Unfortunately, after struggling with organic chemistry, that dream was over. Lewis began to appreciate her English classes more. “I found that I really liked the classes that I took in English and anthropology,” Lewis said. “So I just kept taking more of those… and before I knew it, I basically had two majors.” Eventually, she became a tutor. Lewis began to enjoy this path and decided to “put her money where her mouth is” and began grad school for teaching. Shortly after she became a student teacher under Mr. Murray at Shorewood.