Elizabeth Lund

After eight years at Inglemoor and over two decades inside the classroom, Elizabeth Lund (she/her) knows a thing or two about stories — both the ones in books and the ones students write themselves. As an IB Language and Literature 12 teacher and IB extended essay coordinator, she gets students interested and excited about literature while also staying caught up with her students’ lives.

Lund’s passion for teaching started long before she boarded the Viking ship. While pursuing a PhD in German Studies at Stanford University, she took the opportunity to teach an undergraduate language program in the German department there.

“After a while, I decided that what I enjoyed the most about my program was the teaching part of it and that I wasn’t so interested in the research part of it,” Lund said. “That’s when I decided to become a high school teacher.”

After 13 years at Skyline High School, Lund arrived at Inglemoor in 2017 and has evolved her teaching over time. As an educator, one of Lund’s goals was to make room for many different voices — both students’ and authors’. 

 “By incorporating authors of different backgrounds and ethnicities, my students would be able to see themselves reflected in the curriculum,” said Lund. “I really started to do that about 20 years ago, and just continued that for my whole career.”

Now, as the end of her teaching career nears, Lund looks forward to turning the pages of her life at a slower pace. She plans to indulge in her hobbies: photography, knitting, sewing and writing. She’ll be working on a Norwegian ethnic dress for her daughter, taking photography classes and revising her own novel.

“I was hanging out with some retired friends, and their big questions for the day were, ‘Where are we going to go for lunch? Oh, when am I going to get my puzzles done on the New York Times?’ And I was like, ‘This feels good. I want that,’” Lund said. 

However, even while Lund looks forward to newfound freedom, she said that the heart of her career — her students — will always be cherished.

“Staying in tune with what students are thinking about, what they’re interested in, what they think is funny and how they’re thinking about the world — that part is definitely gonna be the part I’ll miss the most.”

David and Katrina Allemeier

With 38 years of teaching under his belt, David Allemeier (he/him) has worn many hats – from coaching out on the field and in the gym to conducting labs in biology and flipping through math textbooks. Alongside his wife Katrina Allemeier (she/her), who has been teaching at Inglemoor for over 25 years, the pair has built a reputation that resonates beyond the school bell. During almost every one of their vacation trips, the pair has had a chance encounter with former students — a testament to their reverberant legacy.

“All over the world, we’ve been walking through the streets, and we hear, ‘Mr Allemeier, Mrs. Allemeier!’” Mrs. Allemeier said. “It’s pretty cool because if they didn’t like us, they probably wouldn’t yell out — they’d probably go, ‘Oh my god, there they are!’ and run away.”

Despite the success that both Allemeiers have found during their extensive teaching careers, neither initially planned to become an educator. Mrs. Allemeier originally aimed to pursue engineering. Mr. Allemeier hoped to become a doctor but later discovered that a career in education better suited his love for both coaching and learning. Through it all, both Allemeiers agree that the best part is the students. 

“It doesn’t matter what you’re teaching,” Mr. Allemeier said. “When that light bulb goes off and you can see in their eyes that they get what you’re talking about – whether it’s some kind of mathematical formula, or it’s biology, or they start talking to me about cooking, and they got that spark in their eyes – that just makes it fun and exciting.”

As the pair looks ahead to retirement, they said that they are most looking forward to traveling on their schedule instead of the school’s, even though waking up early has become a natural force of habit. 

“I’m tired of traveling only in the summer, when it’s really hot everywhere we go,” Mrs. Allemeier said. “We’ve got a cabin up on Camano, so we’d like to go crabbing, work out in the yard and hike. Never enough time to do that.”

Both agree that the energy of high school students has kept them acting and feeling young. Now, saying goodbye to the classroom buzz of technology and student gossip leaves a bittersweet ending.

“There’ve been certain lessons that every time I taught them this year, I got really sad afterwards, because I’m like, ‘It’s the last time I teach this,’” Mrs. Allemeier said. “Those are times that I sometimes go home, and I’m like, ‘This was such a good day! We were so into whatever we were doing. I loved it; it was good.’ I’ll miss that.”

And while the two are stepping away from the whiteboards, these meaningful lessons still strengthen bonds beyond their time at Inglemoor. Whether it be exchanging Christmas cards or attending former students’ weddings, it’s not the content but the connection they remember most. 

“You’ve got to kind of be a social worker at times. You’ve got to be a psychologist at times,” Mr. Allemeier said. “When a former student comes back and tells you the impact you had on them, most of the time, it’s not what they’ve learned, it’s just the impact you have as a person.”