snapshot into this teacher's life

By Benjamin Rios

Brandon Lo, the Photography and Yearbook teacher here at Yerba Buena, is a San Jose State University graduate with a major in Fine Arts.

This is Mr. Lo’s 10th year here at Yerba Buena. Being here for that long, he has seen a lot of things change and turn into the present day Yerba Buena.

Lo: “ Why do I choose to drive 40 miles to work, and commute each day for over an hour each way? It’s because of the students, and I like the staff... I felt a stronger connection here... I found that I had a really good connection with the principal at the time.”

With the year beginning again, the challenges teachers face are high, such as getting students to come to class, or for them to do their work. For Mr. Lo, his challenge was Yearbook.

Lo: “ I’m taking on Yearbook for the first time. It's a class like no other. I can't just teach one thing to everybody. It’s like running a startup company; you need different departments for different people to do different things at the same time.”

Another one of Mr. Lo’s favorite subjects is photography, as he is the Photography teacher.

Lo: “I worked in the industry first as a studio photographer taking underclass photos, sports photography and portraits. Then my wife told me that I could become a teacher, because I liked to talk about art and photography.”

Mr. Lo is such a caring person, and he just wants the best for his students and he even jokes around with them, though at times he can be very serious. He is really school savvy; if one of his students isn’t in class and he sees them, he encourages them to go to class.

He is one of the most hardworking teachers I know. He is always so busy with Yearbook, Photo, his clubs and his family. Even when I was interviewing him, he was working constantly and he just seemed super stressed.

In order to wind down and kind of relax every Tuesdays and Thursdays, he holds his TTGC (Tabletop Game Club) where he can connect with students and non-students by spreading positivity by playing games such as Magic The Gathering, Bakugan, and even roleplay games like Dungeons and Dragons.

Having Mr. Lo and getting to know him, you can see his true nature and his passions for Art/ Photography.