Faces of GNBVT- Lisa Koczera

Meet Mrs. Lisa Koczera, an English teacher at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. Mrs. Koczera teaches Sophomore English Strategies and Senior English, honors and college prep. Before she began her career at GNBVT, Mrs. Koczera wanted to pursue a career in newscasting. Ultimately, to anchor the NBC Nightly News. However, she decided to change career paths once she began taking Adult Education courses at Voc-Tech. She felt impressed with how organized and well maintained the building was.

Mrs. Koczera’s greatest strength is helping her students develop their curiosity and encouraging them to become lifelong learners. Ms. Koczera’s top goal as an educator is, “To help students realize how important their actions and decisions are. Your choices will make a difference in how our city, state, and country approach key issues like conservation, environmental sustainability, taxation, and personal freedom.” This is a huge responsibility that requires us to be educated voters and consumers.

Koczera earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing from Roger Williams University and a Master’s degree from UMass Dartmouth. She is a proud mother of two grown daughters, her oldest being an automation engineer who works in the pharmaceutical industry and her younger daughter developing software solutions for hospitals and corporations. They are both extremely talented musicians.

In 10 years, she hopes to look back at a gratifying career as an educator while enjoying a healthy and active retirement following her hobbies of running long distances. The biggest obstacle she finds is “finding ways to keep students engaged, and to help them see something of themselves in the literature we study. We are all connected as human beings, regardless of where we are from or what century we live in. Love, apprehension, anxiety and joy are just some of the emotions we all feel, and it’s important to look for ways people are connected, rather than focusing on our differences.”

Article and Picture by: Jeremy Martinez Torres, Senior Media Technology