Kyle Parks

When he was first on campus, he was a student. But now, after graduating from Harvard, and playing professional soccer in Europe, Kyle Parks is an Algebra 2 teacher, and the boys’ assistant soccer coach. Wingspan caught up with Parks recently to find out what it’s like for him to be a teacher at the same school he graduated from. 

Wingspan: Was math your favorite subject in school, or was it something else?

Parks: “Yeah, probably math. I like science a lot too, all the sciences, but probably math.”

Wingspan: Did you always intend to be a teacher? 

Parks: “Maybe not this early, but somewhat. I thought about it a lot later in life. I did some teaching in college, then the opportunity came up and here I am at 25-years-old being a teacher.”

Wingspan: What made you want to become a teacher?

Parks: “I mean I enjoy math a lot, I enjoy teaching other people. I like helping people learn new information. Having that eureka moment and getting to the next level where it all clicks, that’s a great moment to have and in math it’s kinda hard to build up to that with some people so I enjoy spreading that.”

Wingspan: Why and when did you fall in love with soccer?

Parks: “I’ve played since maybe I was 4 or 5. I had an older brother who was 6 years older so he was already playing soccer by then, my whole family does. So my whole life, maybe when I was 3 or 4.”

Wingspan: What was Harvard like?

Parks: “Harvard was great. Not too challenging. They don’t want you to fail out, of course. What I remember is after I left all the people there, all the other students, all the teachers and staff are the most incredible, high achieving people. They work really hard and know what they are doing.You’re just surrounded by some of the smartest and open minded people in the world.”

Wingspan: What was your soccer career like after high school?

Parks: “I went to Harvard, played there for four seasons. My third year I played every game and we were amazing. I won the team award for most improved player, it was really great. My senior year I was voted the MVP of my team, I was maybe top 5 in the nation for saves per game, I was racking up the numbers. I graduated a semester early, went straight to Portugal. I was there for about a year and a half playing second division, working hard trying to make it. I was actually in Spain for like 6 months too, went around the U.S. after that and now I’m here.”

Wingspan: How was Portugal?

Parks: “It was good, a really good experience. I think while I was there at the time I took it for granted a little bit. It was really difficult because I studied Spanish here. I studied Spanish in college but Portuguese, which was pretty similar I thought, but it’s a whole different language you know. I could read it really well and understand a little bit but it was very hard to understand. It was a big change but getting to live in Europe, getting to live abroad, getting paid a bit while doing it. It was a great experience.”