TJ’s newest math teacher is where she belongs.
Photo by Rebecca Holt
Lispin Kuruvilla is one of Thomas Jefferson’s top shelf math teachers. She has a lot of enthusiasm for teaching, and grew up in a unique culture that places a high value on education.
Kuruvilla was born in India and came to Denver when she was three years old. Living in India is still a clear memory for her, where she says she played outside a lot and loved spending time with her family. “I climbed a lot of trees, and fell out of a lot of trees. My aunt always tells me that she had to rescue me from more trees that she could count when I was a kid.” Her father was a teacher, and the family lived close to the school. When her family left India, they lived in Chicago for a while with her father’s family. However, he had difficulty finding work, so they went to Denver, where her aunt lived. For a while, there wasn’t much of her family in Denver. They were nearly the first ones, and over time more relatives have come here. “Whenever we go back [to India], he always has students that come back and visit him, which I think is so amazing. So many years later that they still remember him, they still come back and want to see him. I remember when I was a younger kid I went back with him, and there was this one kid who came back to visit him; he was all grown up, you know? He was married, he had kids. I remember my dad looking at him and was so excited to see this young man all grown up. I remember thinking I wanted that. I wanted to see my students grow up, I wanted to see my students become great things. That kind of inspired me to become a teacher, seeing my father and his passion for it and his passion for his kids.”
Kuruvilla says that family is a big part of life. “Indians very much have taken on the philosophy, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ My aunts and uncles are always a big part of my life, and even my cousins. I grew up with them and learned a lot watching them and seeing how they went through school and life, and I learned about being respectful and being hardworking and all the traits that I value. I learned by watching them, so I think who I am is in a large part due to them.”
In high school, Kuruvilla was active in an Indian association. She learned dances, taught younger kids how to dance, and performed. The association gets together a couple times each year to celebrate holidays. Most of her weekends were spent practicing dances or teaching them. Indian dances have a lot of brightly colored fabrics, and are done on special occasions like holidays and weddings. The first dance she performed was at TJ’s auditorium. She also took a lot of AP classes, and like many TJ Spartans know, they keep students busy. Kuruvilla also worked as a classroom aide in an elementary school while in high school, and tutored other high school students.
Kuruvilla attended college at the University of Northern Colorado. “It was fun. There was a lot more freedom. Having more responsibilities to deal with was something I liked,” said Kuruvilla who graduated from UNC with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Secondary Education. “I really love learning and education. To me it was always important to get a Master’s Degree. It was just something I had to do, something I really wanted to do.”
This is Kuruvilla’s second year teaching at Thomas Jefferson. During advisement and lunch hours, there are always students in her room getting help with Math. “My favorite thing is watching a student who’s been having difficulties solving a problem, finally get it. Just that moment of discovery they have.” Kuruvilla teaches several levels of Algebra to TJ students, and it’s clear that she has a real passion for teaching.
