Meet Teddy Kamburov, our very first engagement manager here at ParentSquare! She’s responsible for creating and updating training content for internal and customer use, as well as working cross-collaboratively to ensure successful product adoption.
What teacher impacted you the most? Why?
My dissertation committee chairperson and professor. She helped me learn how to write for academia and has supported me throughout my program with specific feedback on how I can improve my writing and research skills and has just generally been an amazing person to get to know.
If you had to teach a subject, what would it be?
I’ve already taught World History, Civics, and Intro to Adobe Illustrator…but when I finish my Ph.D., I hope to get a part-time adjunct teaching position at a university, ideally teaching evening classes in curriculum and instruction to teacher candidates.
What words of wisdom would you pass on to your childhood self? Why?
You always want to fit in and be like everyone else. You’ll realize later that you can be yourself and still win, perhaps more so than by trying to fit in with the crowd.
In what ways are you the same as your childhood self?
I’m still pretty clumsy and awkward—but I embrace it now instead of being embarrassed by it!
Favorite restaurant?
I love any restaurant that serves good sushi! I also love pad Thai and fried rice. I could live off of those foods. And maybe edamame, too.
Where did you grow up?
Up until age 7, I lived in Bulgaria with my mom. When she got re-married, she took a leap of faith and brought us to New Zealand, where I stayed through age 11 and also where my little brother was born. After a brief period in Melbourne, Australia, we moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I finished middle and high school there, subsequently attending the University of Florida.
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go & why?
I would love to go to the Maldives. I love tropical vacations with clear blue water, fresh food, and the option to go hiking, paddle boarding, canoeing, etc.
What’s your favorite holiday & why?
My favorite holiday is Christmas. I’m not religious, but I love the idea of Christmas, family time, winter weather outside and fireplaces inside, and above all, Christmas trees!
If you could have dinner with anyone (dead or alive) who would it be?
I’d love to have dinner with my grandparents. They were such amazing, loving, and pure-hearted people. I wish I spent more time with them and took the opportunity to join my mother the last time she visited them in Bulgaria before they both passed away (within a year of each other). Getting pretty deep here, but I wish I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own 20-something life and spent time with them instead…There wasn’t anything that important in my 20s that couldn’t have been put on pause for a couple of weeks.
If you could dedicate your life to solving one problem, what would it be?
Also getting pretty deep, but I’d love to solve our Education problem. Education is about so much more than the curriculum we have to teach our kids, and it’s a shame that to ensure our children are secure, we have to create schools that function like prisons, with lockdown procedures and heavy metal doors that a child can barely pull open. I also wish we taught our kids more about being kids and having fun while learning—why don’t we have a longer lunch period and consistent recess, even for secondary school? I want to see Education become more about creativity, for both kids and teachers. I’ve seen how teachers are given a curriculum to use that is pre-made and required…I went to school to be a teacher and I thankfully had more freedom when I taught, but I wish all teachers had more freedom and more respect for what they do. It’s shameful that in the United States, teachers make so little and often have to take second jobs to get by.
What do you like most about working for ParentSquare?
I like the people I am working with and the solution that ParentSquare provides for schools and districts. I wish I had a product like this when I was a teacher and administrator! ParentSquare truly solves a problem that ALL schools are seeking a solution for to at least some extent.
Teddy has been at ParentSquare since November 8, 2021.
