Callista Radloff has been here with us at Sahuaro since the beginning of the 23-24 school year. She is a first-year administrator and is the Assistant Principal of Athletics and Activities. Ms. Radloff’s journey to being an assistant principal at Sahuaro is inspiring and motivating, and it actually all started when she was a student here at Sahuaro.

After moving around quite a bit when she was younger, Ms. Radloff attended Sahuaro High School when she first arrived in Tucson in 1992.  Ms. Radloff reflected on her high school days, saying, “I was kind of one of the problem kids, so when I went to Sahuaro they kindly suggested that maybe Santa Rita would be better for me. So I went to Santa Rita and they were like, ‘No thank you, go back to Sahuaro.’ So I did and I actually ended up dropping out of high school.” Ms. Radloff didn’t drop out of high school because she disliked school – things were just rough for her outside of school, and she felt like a lost kid who didn’t know anything. 

After dropping out of high school around the beginning of her sophomore year, Ms. Radloff just worked for a while until one day she realized that she wanted more for herself and her life. She wanted health insurance, retirement, and something meaningful for herself, so she knew she had to make a change. Around this time, Ms. Radloff’s friend asked if she would tutor her son because she was good at math, so she tutored him and realized that she really liked it. So, she went back to school at Pima Community College and graduated with a liberal arts degree to go into teaching. She cried throughout her graduation because of how important it was to her. She was no longer just a high school dropout – she was a college graduate. 

After graduating from Pima, Ms. Radloff went back and got her bachelor’s degree at Eastern Oregon University in Early Childhood and Elementary education. Afterward, she started teaching in elementary schools, which she loved. She was teaching kindergarten and relished the opportunity to watch the kids learn something new. She said, “I knew I should be working with kids. I love education, I love teachers and everyone who works in education.”

Wanting to maximize her experience, Ms. Radloff started working at Pima where she mentored, evaluated, and taught classes for teachers. At one point, one of her friends asked if she would do guidance counseling, and she jumped at the opportunity. So she ended up doing high school guidance counseling and she fell even more in love with working with kids, realizing she liked high school-aged kids as well.

During her time teaching in elementary schools and being a guidance counselor, Ms. Radloff was working on her master’s program at Northern Arizona University for leadership, which is a principal certification for K-12 so she could work at any level. After earning her master’s degree, she did a full-time internship in Marana, keeping her part-time job at Pima so she could have a lot of experience because, “It’s important to me to do the best I can for you, for the teachers, for the staff that works here, and I knew that I needed to be there full time.”

After completing her internship and interviewing around for a little while, Mr. Estrella called her and set her up with an interview, and here she is now! She commented on how it was a full circle moment, remarking, “What are the odds of going from, ‘I’m dropping out of high school’ to being able to go to graduate school and get hired at the school you dropped out of? It’s crazy!”

Ms. Radloff is involved all around Sahuaro. She is responsible for doing reservations, she is in charge of all of the athletics, she makes sure Ms. Lori in the Finance office has everything she needs regarding cash handling, she works with Student Council to have all of the events and assemblies, and she makes sure the paperwork for any extra clubs is all in place. Her least favorite part about her job is the disciplinary aspect. She has to do it because it is a part of her job, but she dislikes it. The part of her job that she thinks is most fun is spending time with the kids. She loves being here at school, getting to know the teachers, and seeing all of the fun things they have going on.  

Ms. Radloff reflected on how challenging it was to start college because she didn’t know how to write papers or study. She spent a lot of time in the tutoring center and didn’t give up. She rose like a phoenix from the ashes, and she feels so blessed to be here now. She said, “I love it here. For me, coming into this place was so welcoming. The teachers were so welcoming, and I knew this was a special place just from walking in because of the way everyone was there for each other. I love the kids and families here. This is a very amazing place to be.”

Ms. Radloff sees herself working at Sahuaro for a long time and leaves students with this message: “I want students to know how much I care. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to help you guys be successful and to help you guys succeed. If there is anything you guys need or your families need, please contact me.”