This fall, Chapman welcomed Ben Coates. He will be working with multilingual learners.

This is not Coates’ first year in the teaching industry. He has taught in public schools as well as at the university level. He was also the Boiling Springs assistant principal for a year. 

“I like this job because when I teach Spanish I’m teaching students how to acquire a second language,” Coates said.

Although he is very experienced in schools and teaching, he still faces challenges every day because he has never done this exact role.

“In this role there’s a lot of administrative tasks, so like there’s a lot of training I have to do to be able to do some aspects of my job and so just managing all the administrative parts is probably the biggest challenge,” Coates said.

Coates spends a lot of time in the classroom and with students, but when he isn’t at school he enjoys going out and traveling with his wife Amanda Coates.

“I really enjoy traveling because of the Spanish thing. I really enjoy traveling a lot but even traveling in the U.S. as well,” Ben Coates said. 

He also loves the outdoors and getting some fresh air. 

“I do enjoy hiking and time outside is just kind of refreshing, and I enjoy hiking and water sports like canoeing, kayaking and stuff like that,” he said.

One of Coates’ unique aspects is that he works with his wife, one of Chapman’s Spanish teachers.

Amanda Coates said “she’s very excited Chapman can welcome him and the students can benefit in many ways from him being here.”

“He is a fantastic educator, and we’ve always worked together as a team doing all kinds of different things,” she said. “I’m happy to have him here.I was very excited he was coming to Chapman because I knew his students would benefit from him being here.”