Amy Fix: ‘I wanted to serve and I wanted to work with kids’
Note: On Jan. 30, 2020, Scecina teacher Amy Fix received the highest honor for teaching from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. She was named the St. Theodora Guerin Excellence in Education Award recipient. The following story about Mrs. Fix was among Scecina’s “Great Teaching And Learning” series from the 2018-19 school year.
By Beth Murphy, Director of Marketing Communications
As chair of Scecina’s World Language Department, teacher Amy Fix took on a new challenge this year: teaching English as a New Language.
“Teaching ENL has opened my eyes to something else I really enjoy,” she said. “Teaching kids is more important to me than the course I teach. Spanish and ENL are just avenues!”
Scecina has 34 students in English as a New Language classes. Mrs. Fix also teaches Spanish 3.
Scecina teacher Amy Fix with Tavon Middlebrook, Class of 2019.
For Mrs. Fix, the ENL program also highlights the diversity at Scecina.
WATCH: Great Teaching and Great Learning interview with Amy Fix
“I love the students and our school’s diversity,” she said. “I also love being able to share my faith and pray with my students and colleagues. I love working with this incredibly gifted and dedicated faculty and staff.”
Mrs. Fix has been a teacher for 19 years, including four at Scecina. The Richmond, Ind., native, who majored in journalism and Spanish at Butler University, came to the profession after stints in advertising. She worked at the Indianapolis Business Journal and an ad agency in Colorado, where she wrote, directed and produced TV and radio ads.
Still, she felt a void in her life.
“When I really started examining my life and what I wanted to do, I realized that I wanted to serve and I wanted to work with kids,” she said. She had studied and lived with a host family in Segovia, Spain. She’s also visited Paris, Tunisia, and Mexico, and plans to travel to Puerto Rico over spring break.
“I couldn’t imagine teaching anything else besides Spanish,” she said. “I saw value in learning that language, I loved that culture, and I was good at it. It was the perfect fit for me.”
Scecina, as a college preparatory high school, requires students to take two years of foreign language. To receive an Academic Honors diploma, students must take three years of one language or two years of one language and two of another.
Senior Tavon Middlebrook is one of Mrs. Fix’s Spanish 3 students. He’s been able to use his Spanish to talk to a neighbor who is originally from Mexico.
“It (Spanish) definitely helps,” said Tavon, who said learning another language helps him improve his English vocabulary and grammar as well.
“Taking a language makes both sides of the brain work, which actually makes a person higher-functioning and smarter,” said Mrs. Fix. “It opens students’ eyes to other cultures and ways of thinking, and open minds make for more servant-hearted and compassionate citizens of the world.”
She praised Tavon as a young man who works hard and expects a lot from himself.
Mrs. Fix, said Tavon, “genuinely tries to help everybody and really cares about students, but if you don’t do something right, she’s going to tell you!”
Tavon also takes Honors English, yearbook, Advanced Placement Government and Politics, two dual-credit business classes, Accounting 1 and Advanced Business Management. Dual credit courses allow students to earn college credit.
Tavon, who plays football, lacrosse and track, was the football team’s Mental Attitude Award recipient this season, as voted by his fellow Crusader players.
Outside of school, Mrs. Fix keeps busy with her family: husband Matt and their two children, son Nathan, 13, and daughter Abby, 11, as well as Sadie the dog, 10. She still managed to read over 50 books this year, and “To Kill a Mockingbird” remains a favorite.
She has two favorite quotes:
“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” – Lewis Carroll
Romans 8:28, 38 & 39 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
