From left to right: Becca, Faith, Lily
This week, instead of interviewing a teacher, we’re going to be talking with three members of TPS Support Staff: Becca Dooling, Faith Wilson, and Lily Larson.
Becca Dooling lives in California and runs a dog breeding business called Dooling Doodles, which breeds Goldendoodles, Berndoodles, and Sheepadoodles. She loves traveling to new countries and trying new foods, as well as running, hiking, photography, and visiting Disneyland with family and friends.
Living on an island in southern Japan called Okinawa, Faith Wilson enjoys making bread, especially sourdough, listening to indie folk music, playing piano and ukulele, painting, and sketching.
When she doesn’t work for TPS Support, Lily Larson, living in Logan, Utah, volunteers at an art studio and teaches kids to rock climb. She enjoys painting, rock climbing, hiking, skiing, and playing the violin.
Abby: What made you want to work on TPS Support staff?
Becca: After taking classes through TPS all through junior high and high school, I loved the community that I found here and wanted to find a way to still stay connected. A small invoicing job opened up in the billing department, and I jumped on it! Since then I’ve moved to different positions within TPS including Administrative Assistant, Head Technician, Operations Director, Mission Trip Leader, and now Business Manager. The part I love the most about working for TPS is serving an amazing community of other staff, teachers, parents, and students and furthering the gospel throughout the world.
Faith: Finding a job as a military spouse can be pretty challenging, so I was looking for a job I could work remotely and as a TPS alumnus. I had a tremendous amount of respect for TPS as a company, so when my mom emailed me about TPS looking for new support staff, it was a no-brainer.
Lily: As an alumnus who went on several trips with support staff, I always admired the team and wanted to be a part of TPS even after I graduated. When I was in college and a spot opened up, I immediately applied.
Abby: If you had to teach a subject in school, what would be the easiest thing for you to teach? What would be the hardest?
Becca: I’d have to say math would be the easiest for me to teach. I’ve always really enjoyed mathematical equations and figuring out the solution to problems. The hardest would be science. As interesting as I find it, understanding science has never been second nature to me.
Faith: Well, when I started out in college my goal was to become a math teacher, so I’d probably have to say that math would be the easiest to teach. Teaching a foreign language would be the hardest without a doubt.
Lily: History would be the easiest. Mr. Crosby fostered a love of history in me that still presides to this day. Math would be the hardest. I love Mrs. Crosby, but math just isn’t for me.
Abby: Can you tell us about your family? Do you have any pets?
Becca: My husband, Tyler, and I got married in March 2022 and are about to celebrate our first anniversary. He works in the Bay Area and runs demolition job sites and all of the enormous machinery. We live on quite a bit of land and have lots of dogs! Lucy, Livvy, Bridget, and Lemon are our “Doodle” dogs and come with us everywhere. On most days, you can find us outside throwing the ball in the acre backyard that’s fenced in for our pups to play.
Faith: I have a husband who is an army officer and a baby on the way. I have a cat who lives with my parents because she is a farm cat and needs to be able to roam and hunt freely. And my husband has a sweet yellow lab who is too old to make the flight to Japan with us, so she’s staying with his parents for now.
Lily: I have two dogs who are my work companions. One is a German Shepherd, and the other is an Aussie. My husband also works from home as a patent translator.
Abby: What is an encouraging passage from the Bible that you’ve read recently? What about it was encouraging?
Becca: One verse that’s been encouraging to me throughout the past several years is Philippians 3:13: “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” No matter where we are in life, it’s a constant reminder that we aren’t perfect and have many flaws and challenges to face, but through Christ, we aren’t slaves to our sins and are made perfect through him.
Faith: Ecclesiastes 3:14: “I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.” This is encouraging to me especially at a time in my life when a lot of things around me are changing.
Lily: 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” I found this encouraging because I do not need to be ashamed of my weakness.
Abby: In which area of TPS Support do you work? What do you do for your job?
Becca: Like most of our staff, I have my hands in a little bit of everything. My official title is Business Manager and I oversee all billing, invoicing, and payments. I maintain and manage all resources for all classes including coordinating with publishers, allocating licenses, and managing our digital content. I also supervise LiveChat, head up our technical department, train and oversee new teachers, lead our France mission trip, and a thousand other things.
Faith: I work primarily on LiveChat but I just started to work on the advising team that helps with orientation for new families. For LiveChat I help out both parents and students with tech issues, submitting assignments, enrollment, and a bunch of other things too!
Lily: My primary function is the Staff Manager- overseeing our LiveSupport staff and day-to-day operations.
Abby: What is one of the most overlooked jobs that TPS Support does?
Becca: I think personally one of the most overlooked jobs is helping students get back into class. Our staff are rockstars in getting students run through all of the technical tests, checking firewall/security/parental controls and getting them back into class with audio pretty quickly even if there’s a substantial language barrier. It’s been brilliant to watch all of the staff succeed in learning how to do that effectively and efficiently to help students.
Faith: Hmm, probably something that Lily or Becca does that no one else really knows needs to be done. They’re rockstars for real.
Lily: Our course and rubric builders! They make sure teachers have the resources they need to build your courses and assist them along the way. They also build the rubrics your instructors use to seamlessly grade assignments.
Abby: What is the most-asked question that you get asked as a TPS Support staff worker?
Becca: The most asked question I think would be how to log into Studyplace or GP7! We get that question quite a bit throughout the year especially when there’s an update within a browser, or if the cache is cleared, and it logs the student out.
Faith: I feel like that really depends on the time of year, like last fall for example, I saw a bunch of kids coming in asking where the forums went, and now I’m seeing a lot of questions about enrollment for next year.
Lily: Good question! Likely “Can you reset my quiz/remove this penalty?” or “My audio isn’t working, what should I do?”
Abby: Do any funny situations ever happen? If not, what was a random/strange interaction with someone? What is the most annoying/frustrating experience you’ve had?
Becca: I have a combo answer for both of these questions! There was this one time years ago when a student came to LiveChat and continued to spam the chat endlessly. No one could figure out who he was or how to stop him. Everyone was frustrated with the messages that continued to come with no end in sight! I had only been with TPS for five or so years and felt like it was a mystery that needed solving. I took the kid’s IP address and backtracked it in our system revealing his true identity behind all the fake names. A simple email addressing his REAL name put an end to the spam chats. Our staff had a good long laugh about it because the student wrote back absolutely floored that we had tracked him down. Needless to say, he never came back for spamming.
Faith: Sometimes I’ll have someone come into chat who has the same name as me and we’ll have a spiderman-pointing-finger-guns-meme moment with each other. As for frustrating, sometimes people will come into LiveChat after hours of trying to solve an issue on their own, and by that point, they are so upset and frustrated that they don’t necessarily read through the messages we send them to help them through their issue, which makes it harder for both of us.
Lily: We will occasionally have kids who pick “favorites” on LiveChat or email, specifically requesting that staff member anytime they come into Support. It’s fun for us because we get to know you guys better. Otherwise, anytime we have to join the student rooms on GP7. You guys are funny and we enjoy seeing your interactions. And as a supervisor and upper staff member, it is frustrating to see individuals who take their frustration out on our LiveSupport staff who had no role in making the policy or decision. We always appreciate those who express their frustration kindly and respectfully.
Abby: What is one of the corniest jokes you know?
Becca: The difference between a numerator and a denominator is a short line. Only a fraction of people will understand this.
Faith: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.
Lily: What did the shy pebble say? I wish I was a little boulder.
Abby: What is an interesting fact about your hometown?
Becca: Some interesting facts about where I was born/raised (Modesto, CA):
- George Lucas is originally from here and wrote the original Star Wars series. Every year we have a parade honoring him and his classic film, American Graffiti. All the classic cars tour downtown and show off and most years he attends.
- Jeremy Renner is also from here and stars as Nighthawk in the Marvel series.
- Gallo Wineries has its headquarters setup here and is the largest wine brand in the entire world.
- We have the sixth-biggest farm production in the nation including almonds, walnuts, and livestock.
Faith: I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana which has limestone quarries that were used for some really important buildings like the empire state building and the pentagon.
Lily: Jell-o is super popular here.
Abby: What is something spontaneous that you’ve done in your life?
Becca: The most spontaneous thing I’ve ever done was to book a last-minute trip to Europe with some friends and travel around for two weeks. We visited Paris, Venice, Brussels, and Santorini!
Faith: My first tattoo (I don’t regret it, though).
Lily: Spontaneously traveled to Alaska to hike and visit friends.
Abby: What are some of the best and worst things you’ve ever bought?
Becca: The best thing I ever bought was my first dog, Lucy. She’s my best buddy and comes with me everywhere! I can’t think of anything that would qualify as the “worst thing I’ve bought”!
Faith: The best is probably my espresso machine and the worst is a pair of thrifted shoes that I convinced myself I could squeeze into but I really just get blisters anytime I would wear them.
Lily: The best thing is either a heated thermos for my coffee, or a rechargeable hand warmed for my winter adventures. The worst thing is all the supplies I’ve bought for projects that are now cluttering my garage.
Abby: Are you a coffee or tea person?
Becca: Absolutely coffee! We joke with the TPS staff that drinking coffee is a requirement to work here. The majority of the staff love coffee and, at TPS camp, we can be found huddled around in the staff room each with a coffee mug in hand.
Faith: As a former barista I would have to say coffee– an iced caramel oat milk latte is my favorite, although I do also love a good matcha lemonade or London Fog.
Lily: Coffee in the morning, tea in the evening. Most of the TPS staff are coffee enthusiasts.
We should be so thankful for all the people who help our school and all the work they do! Next time you ask TPS Support a question, remember to thank them and maybe even tell them a joke or ask them how their day is. Another tip that I received from a teacher once is: before you open the TPS Support Chat, write out your answer on a Word doc or browser page, and then just copy and paste it once you’ve opened the chat. This makes the interaction quicker and generally easier on both ends! Have a great day!
“Wherever life takes us, whatever we may do, we can know that God knows our every step. We can never go outside his sovereignty…this is indeed glorious news to know that our God is not confused or surprised.” – Anonymous
Photo Credits: Becca Dooling, Faith Wilson, Lily Larson