Lana Mills

Writing, Grammar, & Literature Teacher
VDA Teacher since 2022

Tell me a little about your personal and educational background.
I was born and raised in Southern California, and I attended VanDamme Academy from kindergarten through 8th grade. Instead of taking a traditional high school path, I took and passed the California High School Proficiency Exam, and then I spent my high school years working and taking classes at a community college. After high school, I was desperate to find a college where I could experience the same sort of intellectual satisfaction that I enjoyed at VDA. Luckily, I did, and I now have a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College, a tiny Great Books school in beautiful Ojai, California.

Why did you decide to become a teacher?
I am lucky to have had some of the most wonderful teachers there are, throughout my education. My teachers at VanDamme Academy, my professors at TAC, not to mention my own mother (Lisa VanDamme), have provided me with an example of what an amazing effect teachers can have on their students and on the community at large. I am so honored to now be able to contribute to that.

Not to mention that I love spending time around kids! I have two siblings who are more than twelve years younger than I am, so it has been amazing to spend so much time around them and to watch them grow up. I also have the sweetest baby nephew and niece.

What will you specialize in and why?
I will be teaching lower elementary writing and math. 

I learned to write at VanDamme Academy, and after graduating I realized both the value of the writing skills I had developed, as well as their rarity. A professor at my college sought me out just to tell me that my entrance essay was one of the best he had ever read. This surprised me, since writing was never a skill I had worked very hard to develop outside of school, and I naively thought that everyone learned the basics I did in elementary and middle school. I learned that in fact, the basic principles of writing are often neglected in elementary education. I am eager to teach students the same foundational writing skills that I was taught at VDA. 

I learned to love math in my freshman college course on Euclid’s Elements, an ancient geometry book. It made me finally see the beauty of the logic behind math, as well as understand its important role in developing those logic skills yourself. However, though I would now name math as one of my fortes, I still remember a time when that was not the case. I believe that my experience will make me capable of sympathizing with the conflicted relationship many students have with math, while also imparting to them how amazing the subject truly is. 

What do you like to do in your free time?
I love spending time outside, whether that involves swimming at the beach, hiking, horse-back riding, camping, etc. When I’m not outside I love to work on creative projects. I am always in the midst of either knitting or sewing something!