West Chicago Community High School welcomed business teacher Carlye Fatum into the WEGO family for the current school year, and just one month in, business teacher Fatum is looking to make a difference for her students.

Although Fatum started her teaching career at WEGO, she originally is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and later attended Wheaton College to study business while playing soccer.

Fatum got involved in WEGO by helping out with the girls’ soccer program before going on to teach business classes.

“I found out that there were some openings to teach business, so then I just followed the doors that opened, and also just fell in love with the community of West Chicago,” Fatum said.

Since starting teaching, Fatum has four business classes, which include courses in business law, investments, and two sections of Intro to Business. These classes teach students financial management, accounting skills, and business fundamentals, all skills essential for anybody interested in studying business in the future.

“In business, there’s so much you can do with it. And so it can be very creative, it can be very analytical. There’s a lot of different ways you can go about it,” Fatum said.

Despite the fact Fatum has recently started teaching, she has gotten a lot of support from her family and former business teacher Nancy Blume.

“Ms. Blume has been a huge encouragement to me going into this, and we’ve still stayed in contact, and have gotten to talk about plans for classes and things that she didn’t get to that would be good for me to implement into the classes too,” Fatum said.

In addition to some of her hobbies, which include traveling, hiking and reading, Fatum coaches girls’ volleyball in the fall, and has high hopes for this upcoming season.

“I really love our volleyball team. I think we have a very strong and determined group that’s willing to sell out and put forth their best effort, which makes playing really fun because we love to compete. So I’m very excited for them this season, and I’m hoping that out of this season, they’re able to just find joy in playing volleyball and being able to help each other grow and improve,” Fatum said.

It is very clear Coach Fatum is already beloved by both the soccer and volleyball programs.

“Coach Fatum is very nice and generous, and she’s always uplifting. She’s also always there for me to make my day better,” sophomore Brielle Borner said.