Chas Schinagel grew up in the desert mountains of El Paso, Texas, where she developed a profound appreciation for the natural world, a love for words and photography, and a deep connection to East-Asian Philosophy. A graduate of The University of Texas at El Paso, she is now in her sixth year of teaching English at Travis High School and is thrilled to begin her second year teaching Creative Writing. Chas believes that education is as much about connection as it is about content, guided by her simple teaching philosophy: "Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."