From Math to Another Path

Mrs. Maria Nicolson grew up in New Zealand, loves the outdoors, loves sports, enjoys traveling to different countries, learning about new cultures, and seeing all the beautiful places of the earth.

Give us a run-down of your life in 30 seconds. 

“It’s been super cool to now experience that with a family and some kids. It’s exciting to spend my time in a new international school as it is now my fourth,” Mrs.Nicolson says. 

Why did DAA stand out to you when looking for a job?

“At the time it was covid, and I like the fact we were in Malaysia and we were stuck, whereas in Dubai you can travel back and forth easily. Our boys are now 10 and 12 so we wanted to go somewhere bigger and had lots going on so that if they chose to play a sport of musical instrument there were opportunities and facilities for them so DAA stood out as having lots of that it seemed very international, well rounded, balanced so it seemed to offer a lot of opportunities.”

If you were not in the teaching field what profession would you look into instead?

“Something health and fitness related. I like studying people and getting to know them. Kind of trying to help them in some kind of way, so I guess some kind of psychologist, which is something I am totally not qualified for but an idea.”

What aspect of your life are you most grateful for?

“Most grateful for my family and my health, and that I can still be pretty active as my running days are numbered.”

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

“In ten years, I guess I will be with family and the boys. 

My youngest will graduate in 8 years time so I’m not sure whether we will be in Dubai or not depending where my kids will be. I’d like to be somewhere close to them so I can see them often. I will probably still be teaching, however I would like to have branched out a bit and do something other than teaching, or move into a different part of education. I’d love to do some volunteer work in Africa or South America. I’d love to take a year off.”