Former student becomes new teacher

After just graduating from OSU in December with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in human development and family science, he didn’t think he would be finding a job so quickly. 

“It was a part of a concept that I would maybe teach, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” Chris Allen said. 

With a sister teaching in New York, and his mom teaching alongside him, Chris Allen is determined to be the best teacher he can. 

“There’s not pressure, but my mom and my sister are both full-time teachers, so I kind of have to prove my worth in the Allen teaching game,” Chris Allen said. 

As he is adjusting to the new role, he thinks back to the teachers he had in high school.

“I guess kind of what I’ve been experiencing is trying to be that teacher that I wanted to have in high school, especially because all the teachers I had were fantastic and incredible,” Chris Allen said. 

Many of those teachers are still here and are now his colleagues. 

“It’s very weird for people to call me Mr. Allen, and it’s even weirder for me to call former teachers I’ve had by their first names,” Chris Allen said.  

For Kelly Allen, her favorite part is seeing her son each day. 

“Chris’s senior year, he wandered down to my room every day during homeroom,” Kelly Allen said. “It’s cool that we are back to that again, where we get to meet up each day. It’s really, really nice to like your kids enough and the people who they’ve turned into that you want to have lunch with them each day.”