Ann Hills She’s most often too modest to say anything about it. And looking at her petite frame, it isn’t an obvious conclusion. That’s why someone would be shocked to find out that Ann Hills, professor of Spanish, is highly competitive in karate and due to test for her third-degree black belt. “There’s so many preconceptions when you say you do martial arts,” she says. “I don’t know why I don’t mention it.” Hills was introduced to karate in college. Because she has always like sports and challenging herself physically, Hills enjoys the physical elements involved. She has competed in many national competitions and has even competed in Italy. “Its physical and of course it’s mental,” says Hills, who also enjoys the self discipline involved. “There’s so much outside of class you need to maintain; It makes you really mentally strong. I know it’s definitely given me confidence.” As a volunteer coach at the same karate school in Canoga Park where she took her first lesson, Hills enjoys seeing the kids learn. She says it is important to stress modesty and sportsmanship, balanced with potential and skill because karate could easily go the other way. “I remind them it’s self-defense,” she says. “You don’t go home and practice on your brother or boast about it at school and get into a fight.” Because she likes competition so much, many of Hill’s other activities are competitive as well. “Competition seems to be the string that runs through it,” she says about her hobbies. Hills also competes in dog performance sports with her Border Collie and Australian Shepherd. Events include agility (obstacle courses), obedience and, most recently, sheep herding with her Australian Shepherd, a breed that is instinctual with herding. “It’s nice to see a dog do what they were bred to do,” she says. A member of the board of directors for the Valley Hills Obedience Club, Hills has always had and loved dogs. She got started in competition when she saw a frisbee competition in the park and thought it would be fun. “It just kind of spiraled from there,” she says. She now helps teach as well. If she’s not doing karate or competing with her dogs, it’s possible that Hills is playing wallyball. And no, she says, it’s “not a speech impediment.” Wallyball is volleyball played on an indoor racquetball court where the walls can be used to create angles. Although her many activities on top of her teaching duties keep her quite busy, Hills says, “I thrive on it though. I think I would be bored.” Active even as a child, Hills participated in dance and theater in repertory companies. Hills was not only a child actress on stage but on the airwaves, performing in radio dramas “when they still had radio dramas,” she says. She performed in radio dramas for the Salvation Army as well as Sears Mystery theater. At one point she even did voice overs for Disney. When she got to college, she says she either didn’t have time or make time for such types of performance. “I kind of lost it a little in college,” she says. “These subsequent things have taken their place.” But what she has not lost is her desire to teach. Hills says subconsciously she has wanted to be a teacher since she was a little girl. “I’ve always had the teaching gene,” she says, describing how she would line up her stuffed animals and read to them as a teacher would. “They were pretty good students, not as much interaction.” “In a lot of areas I fall into the teaching role,” she says, whether it’s Spanish or karate or canine obedience. “I just enjoy it. I’ve always had the teaching gene.” Hills chose to teach Spanish because “it combined my love of literature and culture and the language itself.” RETURN TO FACULTY LISTmailto:hillsa@ulv.edu?subject=HELLOHome.htmlshapeimage_2_link_1
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