Mrs. Reilly has been a beloved member of the Aliso Niguel High School history department for many years. She helps her students navigate through our country’s history and teaches them lessons that they will look back on for years to come.
Mrs. Reilly grew up in Irvine, California and went to Irvine High School. She attended UC Santa Barbara for her undergraduate degree and she has her teaching credentials from UC Irvine.
However, Mrs. Reilly did not always want to be a teacher; she had originally wanted to attend law school and become a lawyer.
Mrs. Reilly says, “I chose political science… and I thought I was going to go to law school… When I was in college I realized that I would have really liked law school but didn’t want to actually be a lawyer.”
Mrs. Reilly had a deep love for both government and history that is shown through her teaching. She is passionate about the subject, helping students become engaged and interested in the topics.
Not just anyone can be a teacher, Mrs. Reilly describes it as “needing to like the human experience. What you give it what you receive.”
Mrs. Reilly believes that teaching is “A very meaningful career. When you are a high school teacher, to be coupled with your passion and interest, in your own subject or content area is a perfect combination.”
At Aliso Niguel, Mrs. Reilly is one of two AP U.S. History teachers, Mrs. Reilly says, “I love the APUSH curriculum and the content. Especially 20th century American History!”
Sarina Zafra (11) says, “She is very kind and a refreshingly laid back teacher. And she is very good at teaching, the way she speaks is engaging and easy to follow.”
Frida Rodriguez (11) says, “I enjoy having Mrs. Reilly as my APUSH teacher because she doesn’t give us any unnecessary busy work, and does give us resources that will actually help us study the units and prepare for the AP exam.”
APUSH is not her only class, Mrs. Reilly teaches Model United Nations.
While she does not have a favorite, Mrs. Reilly says, “MUN, I think, is a wonderful opportunity to talk about a lot of current events that are really integrated in our traditional history and social science curriculum.”
History classes and MUN can build off one another as students can see how the historical thinking skills that they learn in their history classes relate to what is happening in contemporary geopolitics.
Mrs. Reilly also says, “ [MUN] is neat because it’s also 9, 10, 11 and 12 graders that can be in there. It’s one of the few opportunities, I think, in an academic class where you can have a real variety of ages of students, like a team.”
Because of the diversity of ages, students are able to form mentor-mentee relationships with one another, a dynamic that not many other classes can claim to have.
Maya Tata (11), an MUN student, says, “Mrs. Reilly is very passionate about the world and how each matter affects a country individually and on a global scale. She inspires her students to learn more about the world they live in and the laws that affect them or could affect them in the future.”
Mrs. Reilly is a phenomenal teacher who is both loved and appreciated by all that come through her classroom. She wants her students to become informed, engaged citizens that can make educated decisions because, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “Democracy is contingent on an educated electorate”
