Born and raised in Harbin, a city in northern China, Annie Choi grew up dreaming of becoming a teacher.  This year, Mrs. Choi continues to follow her dream as she joins Westridge as an Upper School Mandarin teacher. 

Mrs. Choi graduated from East China Normal University, following in the footsteps of her mother’s friend, who was a role model and motivation for Mrs. Choi. Unlike the  other students who also graduated with a Chinese language and literature major, Mrs. Choi chose to teach students outside of China. This is because she and her husband decided to move to the United States.

In Mrs. Choi’s previous teaching experiences, she has been an advisor, and she feels it’s important to connect with her advisees especially because she knows adolescence can be really challenging. “I was really rebellious in highschool too,” she shared.

Coming to Westridge and teaching multiple levels of Chinese has been a big transition for Mrs. Choi, who only taught one level of Chinese at her previous school. Because of her busier schedule, Mrs. Choi finds serenity in nature. “I really like nature. If you ask me if I am a forest person or a beach person, I like forests more,” she said. Mrs. Choi especially loves to go out to camp with her family and eat barbeque in the wilderness. Her favorite campsite is around the San Bernardino area. From time to time, she also enjoys going on small hikes because to her, being in nature is to “enjoy the God’s creation.” 

In her free time, Mrs. Choi loves going to Dodger games with her family. Her favorite player is Justin Turner. Mrs. Choi’s eyes twinkled as she proudly shared that her husband plays baseball in a league for fun.

Ms. Choi is enjoying herself at Westridge. She loves how everyone is involved in class which allows her to spend less time on class management. Overall, Mrs. Choi likes the atmosphere at Westridge. “I feel encouraged to be in the classroom and teach them what I know, and also they inspire me to get better at teaching as well,” she said.