By Jena Seidemann
Student Life Editor

Last year’s sophomores may recognize a familiar face in the sea of people through each passing period. Pre-AP and GT chemistry teacher Monica Ortigoza is officially starting her first full year at Coppell High School.

After substituting for former chemistry teacher Sally Urquhart in the second semester last year, she replaced Urquhart when she retired. However, there is more to Ortigoza than periodic tables and compounds. Outside of school, she is an avid runner that participates in marathons and ultramarathons.
Never dreaming she would run so far, her journey began when her sister, Stephanie Talbot, wanted to cross a marathon off her bucket list and asked for Ortigoza to join. It was her sister’s one and only marathon, but Ortigoza was hooked.

Training for her eighth marathon, Ortigoza and her running groups begin training at 4:45 a.m. After an hour of running and eight miles later, she repeats the training the next day. On Saturdays, she runs between 14 to 20 miles after gradually building up endurance.

However, her first attempt at a marathon was not successful. While training for her first marathon, her excitement led her to overwork her body and caused a stress fracture on her pelvis. She was out for three months and was forced to start from scratch.

While it is hard to stay disciplined for such a physically exhausting training regimen on top of being a mother and teacher, Ortigoza’s running group keeps her in line.

Her passion for running will be taking her to the Bryan and College Station marathon on Dec. 8. Further down the road, she hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon with a three hour and 40 minute race time. This is five minutes faster than her last time, and even the small margin of time is hard to cut off. After that, Ortigoza aspires to become a triathlete and possibly an Ironman finisher; the possibilities are endless.

The setbacks and triumphs she has experienced have been one of the learning curves with running, but they have proven to be useful when teaching. Surprisingly, running and teaching have quite a bit in common. Both require patience and perseverance when dealing with obstacles and adversity.

“You have to have a big goal and take all the setbacks and let them roll off,” Ortigoza said. “That is how it is with teaching sometimes; you are going to have a bad day but you cannot think about it the next day because you need to start with a clean slate.”

Leading up to the event, dedication and passion cause the marathon to become part of the runner. Crossing the finish line brings a mix of emotions for Ortigoza. It is a completion to one of most physically grueling events to endure; yet when it is over, there is a longing to do it again.

“When you are done, it is big relief, but at the same, you have put five months into one day, so you [sort of] feel a loss,” Ortigoza said. “You are never going to have it anymore, and you ask, ‘what is next?’”

Just as she runs long races, her journey to becoming a Chemistry teacher brought many twists and turns.Ortigoza‘s initial career path did not involve teaching. After switching her major from nursing to pre-med and finally to chemistry, her professor suggested she look into teaching chemistry when she was in graduate school working as a teaching assistant to undergraduates.

“I realized I was having more fun doing the teaching part of it than the research part of it,” Ortigoza said.

Instead of following her father into industrial chemistry, she finished her master’s degree and started a new chapter in the teaching program. Years later, she found herself having the opportunity to teach at Coppell after taking a break to be a stay at home mom of two children who are in fourth grade and pre-kindergarten.

“She really cares about the students and job,” junior Shelby Pittman said. “You could tell she [puts] effort into the lesson she planned.”

In the upcoming year, Ortigoza is looking forward to teaching her students the basics of chemistry. Some of her challenges deal with striving to have the perfect balance of technology while having hands on labs for the students. But regardless of the challenges that lay ahead, whether in the classroom and marathon route, Ortigoza is in for the long run.