Mrs. Cathy Clarkson
Foreign Language
cclarkson@bk.org

Cathy Clarkson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and spent the first eight years of her life there, which explains the die-hard Viking fan that she is today. In 1970, her family moved to Idaho where she has spent most of her life.

As a senior in high school, Cathy had the opportunity to travel to a small town in the Basque country of northern Spain called Oinati. She fell in love with the Basque people and culture. After returning to the states, Ms. Clarkson continued to study the Spanish language and after two years returned to Gernika.

In 1985, Ms. Clarkson received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Spanish from Boise State University. After spending a year working in the private sector, Cathy decided that she would return to school and become a Spanish teacher. Ms. Clarkson spent seven years teaching Spanish in middle school until she was hired at Bishop Kelly in 1994.

Since coming to Bishop Kelly, she has made several trips to Spain during spring break with students and has also participated in the Mexico service trip four times. Cathy says that traveling with students is a wonderful experience and she has learned a lot in the process. At Bishop Kelly she is the moderator for Pep Club as well as Spanish Club.

Ms. Clarkson’s goal as a foreign language teacher is to get students to see the importance of a global perspective. To understand that we share the world with many peoples and cultures and being able to communicate with them leads to greater understanding and opens up many possibilities. She thinks that teaching and learning should and can be fun and strives to have this attitude in the classroom.

In her free time, Cathy loves to read, watch movies, walk her dog and go to lunch and coffee with friends.