This year of Ripon High School, our staff welcomed a new addition to their history department to help students learn to love history and help them achieve great accomplishments. Evan Francis, who replaced former history teacher, James Thomas,  is now the newest teacher to teach U.S. Government and U.S. History, both AP and College Preparatory.

 Francis received his teaching credential from Brandman University in 2006. He did his student teaching at Pitman high school. Along with working at Pitman, Francis has taught for a short amount of time at Turlock and Delhi, with a long term teaching job at Enochs High School in Modesto.    

When asked what made him love history Francis responded, “I grew up literally watching documentaries with my dad. Ever since then I’ve really had a love for history. History is just my thing, it’s something I really enjoy.”

His favorite part of teaching is the interaction that he gets to have with the students, “I really do, especially when there is discussions and just joking around and getting along in class.”

Francis has said that he enjoys the community of Ripon and that Ripon has a closeness in our city that a lot of places don’t have. “There’s a lot of spirit here and a really good family.”  Francis is married and has one son who is a junior at Pitman High School.

When he is not at the school teaching, Francis enjoys reading and going to Disneyland with his family in his free time. “We go down there just about every opportunity we get, sometimes we’ll go Friday and come back Sunday after going all day Saturday.”

  Although Francis wants to teach his students about history, he also wants to be an influence in their lives and prepare them for what the future may bring. His best piece of advice for students is to stay honest, “If you lose integrity and mess with honesty then it takes an incredible amount of effort to rebuild your reputation.”