Ms. Watkins is one of the newest members of the Westborough High School staff and started working here just this fall. 

She grew up close by in Northborough so she has been familiar with the area. As a young student she always had a passion for literature and writing but as a matter of fact, never thought teaching was what she would pursue later in life. 

Watkins went to Providence College and graduated with an English/creative writing major and minored in sociology. Although her first thought was to go into publishing, she quickly found out it was rather difficult to even get into that. With her first job at Boston College in the accounts payable office, she realized it wasn’t what she wanted to do, and although it was a good experience for her she made the tough decision to leave. 

“I didn’t have anything lined up which was scary,” she said.

 She later went on to subbing from day to day at Hudson High School. 

From this she thought “Wow I could maybe do something like this”. 

She connected all the dots with everything she had ever done and saw how education was a part of all of it, from working at a day camp for four summers to the little interaction with some students at Boston College to the day to day subbing, and “the rest was history”.

Coming from her previous job as a long-term substitute teacher at Wachusett Regional High School this past spring, Watkins chose to come to Westborough due to her knowledge of it being a good district as well as availability due to the current situation the world is in. Despite everything, she felt like it was a good fit for her. 

Her transition has been difficult but also rather smooth. On her first day, she said she had been “overwhelmed with the amount of information coming my way”.  But she knew that comes with every new job. Of course, getting used to all the new rules and routines as well as regulations took her some time but she soon fit right in. 

She said “It’s just what I really want to be doing”. 

Along with that Watkins said “The staff and the people here have been really welcoming and it just feels like a good fit”.  

She said the summer before was especially hard for her because she didn’t know where she would end up or how things would work out due to covid-19.

 “I am a very anxious person so that has been magnified,” Watkins said, so with everything going on with covid, she did not think she would be working the way she is now, especially going into school every day. 

Watkins lastly said “I wouldn’t change the path that I took to get here; sometimes it was hard not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, but there were so many experiences I would’ve never had if I hadn’t taken the path that I did”.