New sophomore English teacher Natalie Runnels has traveled all over the world and has been interested in teaching almost her whole life.

Since she was little, she has been surrounded by teaching. Both of her maternal grandparents are professors, and her mother is a professor at the University of Central Oklahoma.

“[Teaching has] been in my family, I grew up teaching my stuffed animals how to read so it was a natural progression to the career,” Runnels said. “I actually started as a music major and quit that after the first week.”

Before coming to HCP, Runnels taught at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City.  She said that it was a very good experience and could see the changing transformation of the school.

Runnels has enjoyed her first weeks teaching at HCP.

“Harding is fabulous, the kids are great, the other teachers are great, and the food is great. Everything here is so amazing it’s blowing my mind,” she said.

Runnels enjoys traveling. She lived in Spain twice.  The first time was the second semester her senior year. On that trip, she learned calculus and physics in Spanish, and traveled around the country. The second was she traveled through a grant program to teach middle school students in Madrid in 2011. While on her second trip to Spain she explored much of Europe, traveling to Greece, Italy, England, Turkey and Portugal. She has also been to Mexico, St. Martin and Barbados.

“Turkey was my favorite; it was nothing like I expected. I think Looney Tunes ruined me because they have people with carts and camels and there are no carts and camels, there are very modern cars and all of that,” Runnels said.

She said one of her most memorable experiences was meeting people including a Syrian man who smuggled out videos and information to the BBC and other news outlets.

Runnels also likes witty comedy movies, as well as pop and classical music.

She and her husband also have an imaginary pug named Optimus Prime that they blame whenever anything goes missing.

Runnels enjoys teaching and traveling and hopes to help students this year.