Image via Sebastian Comes-Pritchett

Rachel Newlon at ACC Littleton Campus on October 10th, 2023

With degrees on her office wall, family photos on the desk, and bookshelves stocked with teaching materials, Rachel Newlon proudly displays her love for education and her family, who serve as her biggest motivators. During an interview, Newlon reflected on her journey from founding childcare centers to her current role as an English Professor at Arapahoe Community College while also finding confidence in niche martial arts with her family.

Early in Newlon’s career as an educator, she pursued an associate’s degree in early childhood education and training from Front Range Community College, leading her to founding her own childcare centers in 1999. Many of the kids were on welfare programs and other government assistance programs. But, due to changes that made it harder to stay in business, she closed these centers in 2012.
“It’s not really easy to uproot a whole childcare center and move it, so we made the difficult decision to close up shop,” Newlon said.

She then got an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, where she worked in the college print shop learning to print and ink. “To spend hours doing that and then taking ink and manually working these presses to print off your work, so rewarding,” Newlon said. Newlon went on to teach at many Colorado Community Colleges. Newlon enjoys community
colleges because “You can be in one classroom and have an 80-year-old learner and a 13-year-old learner,” Newlon said. “It is so far from what most people would consider a traditional
classroom.”

Newlon has also helped the “Campus Closet” here at ACC; it addresses students’ clothing insecurities, highlighting a frequently overlooked need. “We think about housing, we think about financial assistance, but what about clothing?” Newlon said.

Outside of teaching at ACC, Newlon developed a passion for American Kenpo Karate (AKK), a unique form of martial arts that builds off Kenpo and Street fighting. Her family, including her husband and children, have also embraced AKK. Newlon has been practicing AKK for 17 years, with breaks in between, and has earned a brown belt, working towards a brown two belt. Learning confidence has been her greatest accomplishment within the sport.

Newlon attributes much of her success to her family, who have always supported her in all of this. As for her husband, she not only sees him as a lifelong partner but a best friend as well. She hopes this type of relationship translates to how their kids treat their future partners, all three of whom are grown up now. Newlon believes that this impact shows in her kids’ willingness to listen without hesitation when she has bad days or good days.

Having just bought a house with all three of her grown kids and husband, she is grateful they are all so close-knit. “I always told myself that I wanted a really close relationship with my kids,” Newlon said. “I wholeheartedly can’t imagine my life without my kids without my husband.”