He went from being a huskie, to a bison, then a golden eagle, and on July 1, finally a bear.

Bo Vossel, the new principal of Lake Zurich High School, had previously worked as both a chemistry and physics teacher, and will spend his first year as a principal at the high school.      

“I knew I wanted to do something where I wasn’t trapped behind a desk. I like working with people,” Vossel said. “I’ve always liked helping coach people and learning with people, and I knew I wanted to be active. There are definitely days I miss being in the classroom, [but] I enjoyed some of the bigger picture planning: moving beyond my own classroom, working with other colleagues, talking more about the science program instead of just a […] class, [or] how the science program worked with [other courses]. So those larger picture kind of things I really enjoyed, and that kind of got me into administration.”

From the classroom to getting into administration, Vossel claims there are positive sides to each of the positions he has held. No matter the position, he says there is one part that fascinates him about the school setting.  

“I think my favorite [part] is that there’s always kind of that sense of wonder or newness, and I love seeing teachers tap into that with students,” Vossel said. “When students see something or do something they’ve never done before [there’s] that look of ‘wow this is amazing,’ that look of wonder, that look [where] you can see [the student] is really engaged in [something].”

Although Vossel considers the “sense of wonder” in a school setting to be his “favorite,” he also took the job because he had two relatives that worked in the district along with friends, such as Julie Bryniczka, math department chair, who worked “directly with him” at Jacobs High School.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with him because [we] can sit down and have a conversation, and he’s still willing to give me advice. For example, this past summer, I needed his help on an urgent issue, and he came in on a Friday, when he didn’t have to. And we figured it out together,” Bryniczka said. “It’s really nice to have that support, which is very similar [to before]. He would have done the same thing at Jacobs.”

Vossel hopes to bring that positive attitude to LZHS in his new position throughout the duration of the new school year.

“Someone once told me ‘you need to respect the work that’s been done.’ Step one is having to learn what the work is that’s been done, so for a lot of it, for me, is meeting people, building relationships, learning how people work, [maintaining] the systems that are in place, being able to talk what’s working and what’s not, and then if we need to make changes, we’ll make changes,” Vossel said. “If not, then there are a lot of great things going on. It’s not like great things aren’t happening. Great things are happening, and my job is to try to help those continue and make more of them.”