Lohse brings experience, enthusiasm to student teaching

Student teacher Cody Lohse will be joining WHS for the spring semester. Lohse will be teaching in Brendan Praeger’s English, drama, and journalism classes. Here are some things to know about Lohse.

Hometown

Lohse grew up in the small town of Dover. He attended Mission Valley High School and graduated in 2005. “You tell people you’re from a town of about 45 and they ask hundred or thousand. I’m like ‘no, period.'”

Lohse enjoys learning

Following his high school graduation, Lohse has only spent one year not attending a college. At the moment, he is attending his third college and working to complete his fifth certification since graduating. Lohse’s degrees include an associates in applied studies and visual design and a bachelor of arts in contemporary journalism and film from Washburn University, and a Masters of photojournalism from the University of Missouri.

He is currently working to complete a masters in curriculum and instruction from Kansas State University. “You never have to pay your student loans back if you just don’t quit going to school,” Lohse said. He enjoys learning and tries to learn new things every day. “I play multiple instruments so I’m learning that stuff, working on photo and video, I’m an uncle now for the second time and learning about that,” Lohse said. Along with learning, Lohse also enjoys teaching. He helps with Mission Valley teaching band and working with kids, and hopes to continue doing so.

A passion for music

Lohse has been involved in music all of his life, even his family has a history in music. In high school, he participated in jazz band, concert band, drum line and more. His favorite type of music is death metal or death core. “The heavier the better,” Lohse said. In college, he even wrote a research paper on whether listening to heavy music promotes violence and came to the conclusion that it does not. While he enjoys music, he is a passionate country music hater. “Most of them don’t even write their own songs,” Lohse said. Lohse has travelled to many concerts and has even met some of the bands. “Music is an outlet for people,” Lohse said.

Journalism and other hobbies

Some of Lohse’s other hobbies include journalism and photography. He likes to write stories about environmental topics, and wrote a story about climate change affecting invasive species in the United States. Lohse’s favorite story he has written was following his friend’s band. “The idea was to see a day in the life of a rock star. You follow him and he’s eating and working on equipment. It isn’t all the glitz and glam you imagine it to be,” Lohse said.

Lohse enjoys photography and shoots an array of different subjects, ranging from concerts he attends to weather and environment. He also has a large collection of baseball cards and is currently learning to speak Mandarin.

The Beard

Yes, the beard is a Mission Valley thing. “It was kind of a thing that that’s how you marked leaving childhood. For events like FFA and FCCLA you had to be clean shaven,” Lohse said. Following his high school graduation, Lohse joined a band who agreed to grow out their facial hair, and the beard just stuck. Lohse’s beard is now 14 years old.

Future Career

Following college, Lohse intends to be a journalism teacher. He hopes to one day work up to a community college teaching level, continuing to teach the things he is most passionate about.

Emma Frey, @_emmafrey_, Photo by Laurel Barber