National Teacher of Year Has Roots in Studio City

Rebecca Mieliwocki made international news last week for being named National Teacher of the Year.

She teaches seventh-grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank and will spend the next year touring the country to talk about teaching.

Her humble beginnings, according to a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, shows that she developed some of her work ethics working in Studio City.

She said:

My first job was a publishing company in Boyle Heights, a compositor who put textbooks together. It was interesting, but it didn't call to me. On Saturdays I worked at a flower shop — that's the job I had through college. [Eventually] I went to work for Mark's Garden in Studio City — really exciting work, the Emmys, celebrity weddings. I decorated the Schwarzeneggers' house for Christmas before he was governor, designed Elizabeth Taylor's flowers for her airplane. It was fun, very L.A. But I felt, I can't do this the rest of my life. I made a list of everything I wanted in a job, being a project coordinator, being creative and in control of things I created, and when I showed my husband the list, he cracked up. He said, "I know you don't want to hear this, but you're supposed to be a teacher."

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