If you walk through D-hall at Lincoln Southeast High School, you will run across many outstanding teachers, including Social Studies teacher, Sasha Reeks. You can find Reeks up bright and early teaching at 7 a.m. In the past, you may have even seen her coaching Freshman Girls Basketball here at Southeast.

Although she was originally born in Omaha and went to high school at Millard South, she ended up here at LSE. Reeks has now been a teacher at LSE for the past eight years and teaches classes such as AP Psychology and Geography Diff. She didn’t always want to be a Social Studies teacher though.

“I started college wanting to do studio art, then I changed to nursing, but I couldn’t handle things such as dissections, so I changed again to teaching,” Reeks said.

Not only has Reeks realized that teaching was the path for her, but she has also found all the joys that come along with the job. “I started teaching and I loved it. The connections that you make with students is like none other.”

“I have family members that have mental health issues. So that was always something that I was interested in,” Reeks said.

Reeks herself has faced issues with mental health. During her AP Psychology class, Reeks opened up about her own personal mental health journey. She hopes that by telling her story it will leave a positive-impact on her students.

“I don’t think students know a lot about what services are available to them if they’re going through a hard time… So I think it helps if a student is able to come to me and talk to me if they are going through something,” Reeks said.

Reeks is always one to come to for advice, and all around an amazing person to talk to. She notes, “I think if I could look forward 5 years ago I would see if things were going to be okay; if I was going to feel better and if my family was happy. Then come back now and tell myself it was going to work out. Knowing that things are going to eventually be alright would be an amazing feeling when I am struggling.”