Hi! I am Dawn Koca and I am super excited to be teaching here at WES! I first attended college at Colorado State University and received my BA in Music and Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology. I later went on to receive my Pre-K – 6th certification and Masters Degree in Reading K-12 at Elmira College in Upstate New York. I taught 2nd grade for a year, 1stgrade for a year and Kindergarten for 7 years, all in New York. I was missing my family and needed a change, so I moved to Chicago to be near my mom and sister and her family. That is where I met my husband, Matt. I started working in the schools again, doing a ton of substitute teaching, including numerous maternity cover leaves in multiple Kindergarten classrooms. One summer, we decided to visit North Carolina and after spending a week traveling all over, we knew that eventually we would want to move here. We have now been in Zebulon for almost 3 years, and we could not be happier! I started subbing at WES in early 2020 and loved the overall atmosphere from day one. I am looking forward to being back in a Kindergarten classroom at a school that I have grown to love. In my free time I love to be outside gardening, going kayaking with my husband and cooking all different types of food. We also enjoy spending time with our two Golden Retrievers, Shafer and Dawson, and our cat, Marley.