Born in Olsztyn Poland, Jola received a Master of Science and Engineering degree in technical physics from Gdansk Polytechnic. She later earned a postgraduate degree in journalism and political science from Warsaw University. After moving to the United States she earned a Master of Arts in teaching Mathematics from Eastern Kentucky University. Jola brings a diverse background to her work at Black Mountain Academy, having been a political reporter working for a daily newspaper in Poland, a PR director for Michelin in Poland, and a high school teacher and a math adjunct instructor in technical and community colleges in the United States! She shares “I love to teach math to students who love or hate math. It is challenging in both cases and I like challenge!” One of the ways she accomplishes this is via storytelling: “I love to tell math stories and show students that math is the language of the multiverse. We can find math in a cauliflower, in a cruise control of our cars, in a profit of our company, in our saving account, in a cup of coffee, in a population of rats, and in a way we fall in love.”
When she is not at work, Jola enjoys playing tournament bridge, practicing Ashtanga yoga, reading books and magazines, following international politics, listening to music, and hiking with her wife Nan and Portuguese water dog, Puji. As a journalist and a recipient of the Freedom Forum scholarship, she interviewed Daniel Fried in the White House (an advisor to Bill Clinton) and witnessed and wrote about the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe.