Fridays with Fiona: A Conversation with Ms. Chamorro

October - Conversation with Nurse Jenni
November - Conversation with Mr. Dioli 
December - Conversation with Sr. Dolan

 

 

FIONA:  Good afternoon, Ms. Chamorro.  Thank you for your time today.  What do you do at Sacred Heart?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  So my job title officially is Manager of Digital Communications and Marketing, which means that one, I handle all our school’s social media – our Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram.  I also oversee the website news hub, which is where “Fridays with Fiona” is and I do a lot of design projects.  I design the magazine and different invitations or other things you might see at an event, and I also produce a lot of our school videos.  One video you might have seen was our recent Christmas video. 

 

FIONA:  What is the main goal of having a website for SHS?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  That’s a good question.  For any company, especially a school, it’s a really great place for you to educate people about your organization.  For Sacred Heart, it’s a great place for prospective families to go.  So someone who might be applying to the school will want to use it to learn more about Sacred Heart and see if it’s the right place for them.  They can learn about our academics, athletics and fine arts or just what the day in the life of a student is like.  It is where you can find out a lot of information and explore it yourself.  Another good thing about websites, and why a lot of people care about websites, is because it saves money.  You don’t have to keep printing things – paper is very expensive and it helps the environment.

 

FIONA:  What’s your favorite thing about your job?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  It definitely has to be working with the students and being able to go around to the classrooms and different events on campus. I really enjoy meeting students like you and working with them to share what’s happening at Sacred Heart – because it’s a pretty exciting place!

 

FIONA:  What’s your least favorite thing about your job?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  Oh, probably meetings.  Like Mr. Dioli said, sometimes you have to have them but they are not always fun!

 

FIONA:  Did you go to SHS?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  I did.  I went to Sacred Heart for high school so I only went to the Prep, but it was a really fun four years.  It is fun being back here as an employee.

 

FIONA:  Are any of your teachers still here?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  Yes, a lot of my teachers are still here.  Well, first of all, Mr. Dioli was my principal and now he’s the director of schools.  It’s funny, every time I go to his office I feel like I’m still going to the principal’s office.  There are still math teachers, English teachers, foreign language teachers and many others [from my time as a student].

 

FIONA:  What are the biggest differences between SHS then and SHS now?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  It’s a lot different.  The preschool to eighth grade used to be St. Joseph’s School and now we are all one big school [called Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton], so that is one difference.  At the high school, where I used to take art and science classes, that building is not there any more and it’s now a big newer building that is really nice.  I think one of the main differences is that the school is bigger – there are a lot more students.  When I went here, there were only 120 kids in my class and that was big back then, but now I think it’s about 150 or 160 per class [at the Prep].

 

FIONA:  Has anyone from SHS inspired you in your life?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  That’s a good question.  I had a lot of teachers inspire me at different stages of being a student.  Whether it was encouraging me to try something or challenge me. I had a teacher – math isn’t my favorite subject – who helped a classmate and me get a tutor.  It shows how caring our teachers are for us and she wasn’t even a math teacher, but she was a good mentor to me and she helped me with that.  My teachers taught me how to work hard and overcome obstacles, because sometimes you might get hung up on a class or a project but you learn how to overcome it, which is a really big lesson I learned here.

 

FIONA:  What was your favorite subject in school?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  I don’t know if I had a favorite subject because I had a few different classes that I really liked.  My freshman year I really liked my Global Studies class.  I had Mrs. Whitchurch – she was a legendary teacher here and we had a fun class.  Senior year I liked my Anatomy & Physiology class, which was a fun class, too.

 

FIONA:  What was your favorite book when you were little?

 

MS.  CHAMORRO:  My favorite book I got when I was in kindergarten. It was “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and I got it from my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Baker, and she signed it.  I still have it at my parent's house.

 

FIONA:  Do you have any pets?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  I don’t have a pet myself, but my mom and dad just got a puppy and I take care of her sometimes.  I unfortunately don’t have time for a pet fulltime, but she comes over to my house and visits.  Her name is McKeever and she is a mini bull terrier, like the Target dog.

 

FIONA:  What’s your favorite thing to do in your spare time?

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  I really like watching sports; I am a big sports fan.  I like going to the gym and doing spin class, spending time outside, enjoying the weather and sunshine, and being with family and friends, too.

 

FIONA:  Thank you for your time.

 

MS. CHAMORRO:  Thank you!