Get To Know The Staff - Julianna Barto

As a kid, school wasn't something I had a lot of interest in; I was more preoccupied with my friends, animals, and sports. We spent a lot of my childhood moving around North Carolina, England, and Illinois. I was very social, but reading aloud and group work always made me nervous. I learned quickly that if I was quiet and stayed under the radar teachers never really noticed areas where I was behind my peers. It wasn't till we moved to Bristol, England and I was sent to a private school that teachers started to notice I needed help with reading and math. It was because of their support I learned where I needed to focus my educational energy, and they gave my parents tools to help me at home.

When we came back to the U.S., I still struggled in school, having been thrown from a personalized private school back to the large suburban Chicago public schools. Moving from one country to another was extremely difficult, in math I was far behind my peers, in vocabulary and science I was far ahead. Moving again two weeks before my sophomore year of high school didn't make things better. Being at yet another big high school, my family and I quickly learned we were the only people who seemed to care about the state of my education. I had to learn to motivate myself to get work done to the fullest of my abilities, which prepared me for college.

It wasn't till college that education started to interest me, and I was able to take classes about multiple interests. I think being on my own for the first time, and wanting to get good grades for the first time in my education forced me to get creative about studying and learning. I had teachers who, like our TrinityPrep teachers, genuinely care about the success of students and the overall enrichment of their lives. I learned how to budget my time between school, my sorority, and my part-time job bartending.

After college, I was feeling adventurous, so I moved to the north side of Chicago where I had everything from office jobs to working retail, which was indeed a humbling experience. Around the time I was considering moving back to the Charlotte area, my father Harry Barto was beginning to learn about TrinityPrep.

After starting at TrinityPrep in 2017, I finally started to understand why people go into education. I certainly never pictured myself working at a high school, let alone enjoy it so much. Every day is a new experience, and I'm able to learn so much about education, business, and kids.