Profe Jones is the middle school Spanish teacher here at Barstow, and though he’s new, only teaching here for two years, he is already adored by everyone who knows him.
“He’s a very understanding person. If you are struggling with something he understands that and I feel like other teachers don’t always get that. That’s why he’s one of my favorite teachers. I feel like you could talk to him about anything and he would get it, but other teachers wouldn’t,” said Izzy Hamlin ‘28.
Profe Jones was born and raised in Independence, Missouri. His parents are both teachers, his mom is Mrs. Jones, who is a teacher at Barstow. His childhood was pretty similar to most peoples, it had its ups and downs, but one thing from when he was younger was vacations.
“My best memories from when I was a kid are vacations, we would go on long vacations almost every summer,” he said. “The best ones we took were just us, in the truck, taking the camper and just going to the Grand Canyon, or Catalina island or Washington or Mt. Rushmore,” Profe Jones recounted.
He also loved school, especially Science. Ever since he was five he loved biology and the ocean, so naturally he aspired to be a marine biologist. Up until his senior year of high school that was his plan, become a marine botanist, but about halfway through the year he changed his plan. He decided to follow in his parent’s footsteps and become a teacher.
His first teaching job out of college wasn’t teaching Spanish at Barstow, or even teaching Spanish at all; it was at a school in Turkey teaching English. Moving to Turkey was an exciting and scary experience for him, but it also led to so much happiness.
In 2014 while in Turkey Profe Jones met his future husband, Vulkon, and on that same day their future cat Efrus was born. Five years later they got married, and have been together ever since.
Profe Jones moved back to the US about two years ago, which was a bittersweet moment. Though he was happy to be back home with his family, Vulkon couldn’t leave Turkey. Despite that, he still moved back and got a job at Barstow, and he is currently in his second year of teaching here.
Barstow is so lucky to have him, and his students agree.
“He’s a very welcoming teacher, he’s supper funny and he makes you feel like you’re a part of the family,” Emily Smith ‘27, who is in his 1st hour Spanish class.
“He’s an inclusive, caring, and kind person, and he makes class fun to go to,” Shria Malay ‘27, who is in the 5th hour Spanish class.
He’s more than just a teacher though. He also has 3 cats Efrus, Usai, and Mochi. Efrus, which means moonlight/moonbeam in Old Turkish, is Profe Jones’ oldest cat, at nine years old. Usai is an eight year old Bombay with black fur and green eyes. Their last cat, Mochi, is a seven year old gray Scottish Fold who was found on the street when he was about one.
Along with his fun classes and adorable cats, he’s also known for his love of music. So what does his playlist look like? While he says, “Currently I am really liking singer/songwriter, female vocalist, kind of ooky spooky stuff. I would say my favorite song right now is anything by Paris Paloma or Kiki Rockwell, but I think I have to go with the Fruits by Paris Paloma.”He also mentioned that he likes the songs “From Persephone” and “Cup Runneth Over” by Kiki Rockwell.
Along with music, he also loves the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. RuPaul’s Drag Race is a reality show that has been running since 2009 in which 16 drag queens compete in various drag related challenges judged by famous actor and drag queen RuPaul.
His favorite queen from the show is Trixie Mattel who appeared on season seven. Though she didn‘t win that season, she has gone on to have a very illustrious career from then on writing three books with fellow season seven queen Kataya, and even getting her own hotel called The Trixie Motel. Profe Jones considers her to be a huge influence on his life and she is a huge inspiration to him.
“She [Trixie] is so hardworking,” he said. “If she has an idea she will do it. She’s very tenacious, and I don’t have that tenacity, it’s something that I really admire. The work ethic is unreal, the creativity, unreal, the innovation, unreal.”
Profe Jones is an amazing teacher and person. He’s funny, caring, and accepting, and his personality always lights up a room. Profe Jones has accepted the Academic Principal position for the Barstow School – INO Campus in Istanbul, Turkey. We will greatly miss him on campus next year! Be sure to show your appreciation for Profe Jones during this last semester!
