Katherine Schmidt, English Department Chair
Email: kschmidt@luthernorth.org
Phone: 773-286-3600 #513
Katherine Schmidt has been at Luther North for 30 years. Prior to beginning her teaching career at Lutheran High School East in Detroit, she worked as a writer and editor. She is a graduate of Valparaiso University.
“I am inspired by my students every day because they are such great kids and because I can see the growth in them. It’s truly a blessing to work with students as freshmen and then to teach them again as juniors and be able to see how they have matured spiritually, socially and educationally. I am also inspired by my colleagues who are among the most dedicated teachers and administrators with whom I have had the privilege of working. They are talented and committed, and they make Luther North the community that it is.
I chose teaching as a career because I love English–all of it–even the grammar–and I wanted to be able to work in this area every day. When I was in fourth grade, my family was going through some rough times, and my mother said to me, “As long as you have a library card, you’ll always have a friend and you’ll always have something to do.” I took that to heart and in seventh grade when I got a job at the public library I set a goal (albeit totally unrealistic) of reading every fiction book in the adult section of the library. I want to share my lifelong love of reading with my students. One day a student asked me “If you could live your life all over again and be anything you wanted to be, what would you do?” It took me a split second to say “I’d be an English teacher at Luther North.”