This 2020-2021 school year, Rancho Cucamonga High School welcomes Mrs. Alexis Duncan as a new forensics and biology teacher.

Mrs. Duncan attended and graduated from Rancho Cucamonga High School. This is Mrs. Duncan’s first year teaching, but she was a long term substitute in physics and geology here at RCHS for the second semester last year. This year she will be teaching both forensics and biology.

Mrs. Ducan said she became a teacher because she “felt like there was a lack of representation for teachers of color, especially in the STEM field.”

During her four years at RCHS, she had only one teacher of color, Mrs. Sherry Berwick, now Dr. Berwick. Dr. Berwick taught AP econ and advised Link Crew before becoming an assistant principal here at RCHS.

Mrs. Duncan went to the University of LaVerne after graduating from high school, where she got her bachelor’s degree in science and her master’s degree in teaching.

One thing Mrs. Duncan wants the school to know is that she loves Rancho. Mrs. Duncan said, “I love Rancho Cucamonga High School so much. I was born and raised in Rancho Cucamonga, so I bleed purple. It was my ultimate dream and goal to be a teacher at my alma mater because I do think that the culture at RCHS is spectacular, and I feel a lot of pride being at this school.”

“To have a good day at school, you need to be open and positive about learning because if you are not, you are not going to have a good day because you do not want to be there. Even if some good things are happening, you may not experience them as good because you are already in a negative mind state. So being very positive and open will allow you to have a good day in general,” said Mrs. Duncan.

For Mrs. Duncan, the best thing about being a teacher is her students. She said, “I love teaching because of my students and learning more about them and experiencing them learn new concepts and even just socially learning about themselves, the world, and life. I love the experience of offering myself as a trusted individual for my students. To just be involved in their life. It is beautiful to be a teacher and have that blessed opportunity to experience that life of my students as they go through each day.”

The wisdom Mrs. Duncan would like to share with the students here at Rancho is to ask questions when you do not understand and always try not to worry if your question sounds “stupid” because that is not important.

“You must understand everything in your classes because you never know what you want to do in the future, so it is better to go into it with the most opportunities you have. So basically try the best you can as often as you can so that you have the most opportunities ahead of you as possible,” said Mrs. Duncan.

“The thing I want to leave with is I hope that Rancho Cucamonga High School culture as a whole can turn around and be more positive and open to every individual regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identification, religion, etc. And that we grow as a campus to be open and loving to everyone,” said Mrs. Duncan.