Staff Spotlight: Ester Paw

My name is Sher Mu Ku and I am a junior here at Northwest High School. For our Digital Journalism class, we were supposed to go out and interview a staff member or a teacher at Northwest who impacts us. So, on November 7, 2022 I decided to go out and interview one of our bilingual liaisons, Ester Paw. I decided to interview her because of how very little is known about this department, and how underappreciated their work is.

Ms. Ester Paw is a bilingual liaison for the Karen community. The Karen people are an ethnic group from Myanmar (and some parts of Thailand) who are refugees in many countries because of the ongoing civil war, genocide, and ethnic cleansing that is still going on in Myanmar after more than seventy years. She has been working this job since 2017, previously working at the OPS T.A.C building. August of 2022 was her first year working at Northwest.

My first question was, “Why did you decide to work at Northwest and work this specific position?” She then replied that, “It has diversity, and I would like to support our Karen community, especially parents with language barriers, so we can give them the best support.”

For my second question, I asked, “If you could travel to any country/city, where would you go and what would you do?” I learned that she would like to go back to her native land called “Kaw Thoo Lei.” That is in Myanmar. She also stated that she would love to visit the orphans and widows and educate them on basic personal hygiene and nutritional health, while also providing them with food and the best support possible.

My third question was, “Do you ever wish you were doing something else other than this job?” She told me that she enjoys doing what she does, but she would like to try working in a public health setting.

I learned that Ester Paw’s special talent is the fact that she can speak three (almost four) languages.

For my fifth and final question, I found out that she would like for Northwest to have a staff lounge so that there would be more gathering and engagement with each other. She also talked about how staff and teachers get access to an online district resource book, and wished that something similar would be made for the students, since not many kids know about the clubs, scholarships and other opportunities offered or provided by Northwest.

I think that Ester Paw is a great person that should be more recognized by Northwest High School. Many students and staff should be very lucky to have her working here and helping out within the community. Her contributions and helpful mindset are a great asset for this school.