Every OVS student on the campus knows that Fred Alvarez eviscerates reading journals with his pink pen, but new Upper Campus teacher Miles Munding-Becker knows it far better than they ever will.
Miles Munding-Becker started at OVS as a Tater Tot at Lower and graduated from the Upper Campus in 2013.
In that time, he played baseball and ran track, went on every camping trip he could get on and took a range of challenging courses that, like so many other students, included the year-long freshman Humanities class, where he withstood the wrath of Mr. Alvarez’s pink pen.
“The color pink, it gives me a lot of stress when I see that,” said Mr. Munding-Becker, who has overcome that anxiety — and the anxiety that comes from being a first year teacher — to find his groove in the classroom.
“Now that the first couple of weeks are through I’ve kind of settled in a little bit and it’s been a lot of fun being back here,” he said.
Mr. Munding-Becker, who is affectionately known to students as Mr. M-B, is the new Chemistry and Marine Science teacher for the OVS high school campus.
In such a short time as an OVS faculty member, Mr. M-B has had a large influence on the community. He has already gotten approval to create an official OVS surf team, which will run both winter and spring seasons and already has 14 devoted members.
He started this push for a surf team at OVS because he learned to surf at the Lower Campus during Friday surf sessions, and much of his time in the water has been with OVS.
Sophomore Andrew Little says he loves the way Mr. M-B engages students in and out of class.
“His classes don’t feel like it’s some like teacher who I’m super disconnected from, it feels like it’s someone who I can talk to and be kind of like normal in a way compared to super like, stressed about his class or being in it,” said Anderw, who is Mr. M-B’s chemistry class and is a member of the newly created surf team.
During his time in high school, Mr. M-B loved surfing with friends and teachers and doing dawn patrols with previous members of the community such as Matt Gustafson and Scott Taylor Turner.
“Surfing [has] been a fabric of OVS for a while,” Mr. M-B said.
Mr. M-B learned to surf at the Lower Campus during Friday surf sessions and much of his time in the water has been with OVS (He even surfed before his graduation ceremony with now pro surfer Lakey Peterson).
Besides surfing, Mr. M-B also has a passion for the outdoors that was fostered by OVS.
Although he loved camping, he didn’t realize it was his passion until college. After questioning why he was so uncomfortable and feeling like something was missing at college he found the outdoor program at his school, and he discovered his intense love for the outdoors.
He decided to change majors from international relations to Environmental Science with a minor in spatial studies, and he recently defended his thesis on his way to earning a Master’s degree in the subject.
Despite being traumatized by Mr. Alvarez’s pink pen in his freshman year, the two have actually stayed well connected over the years, and have developed a deep friendship.
Mr. Alvarez said he’s felt immense pride as he has charted Mr. M-B’s growth through college and through the early stages of his professional careers.
“There are certain students who, for whatever reason, you just connect with in incredibly meaningful ways, and who become like part of your family in the years after they graduate,” Mr. Alvarez said. “Miles is definitely one of those students, and I’m really happy my good friend is now one of my professional colleagues.”