Katie Abbring
B.A. Art Education, Calvin College
M.A. Education, Hamline University
House Veritas

Katie Abbring is the Photography Teacher at SWCHS. She went to Calvin College for her BA in Art Education and Hamline University for her MA in Education.

Katie has almost two decades of experience teaching art at Avail Academy. She helps students to look at God’s creation with an artist’s eye, develop their creative gifts in photography, and create art that glorifies God.

Katie grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in a family of six. Her father is an avid photographer and took the family on trips to the National Parks to enjoy and photograph the wonderful world that God made. Katie remembers being spiritually moved by the beauty of a sunset on Jackson Lake in the Grand Tetons at age 12. After graduating from college, Katie moved to the Twin Cities to teach art and married her husband, Steve.

Steve and Katie live in Eden Prairie and have three children, Levi, Joel and Hazel. Katie enjoys being out in nature. She loves to garden and is part of the Master Gardener volunteer program. Katie likes hiking, biking, and running around the Twin Cities. Following in her father’s footsteps, Katie’s family also travels to National Parks and other beautiful places. She enjoys creative pursuits like photography and working with the worship team on visuals at her church. Katie’s favorite artist is Georgia O’Keeffe because of her vibrant paintings and shared love of nature.

Kit Avery
Business/Strength & Conditioning Faculty
B.A. Marketing, Ethics, Drake University Business School
ACSI Certified
First year at SWCHS: 2010
House Fide

Kit Avery is the chair of the Business Department and coaches strength and conditioning at Southwest Christian High School. He grew up in Deephaven, Minnesota, and he and his sister, Annika, are proud alumni of SWCHS. Kit is a cancer survivor and Eagle Scout. He owned and operated a family business in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area prior to teaching at SWCHS. He was one of Southwest Christian’s top athletes and played Division I basketball at Drake University where he had the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament.

Kit married his wife, Anna, in 2014, and the couple has two sons, Elias and Ezra whom both attend Chapel Hill Academy. Kit and Anna are both active in Bible Study Fellowship where he has the privilege to teach in the children’s program. A couple of traditions the Avery family enjoys include Taco Tuesday, sunset waterskiing and adventure hikes. Mr. Avery enjoys being physically active, waterskiing, spending time in wooden boats with his wife and sons, working on home renovation projects with his father, and spending time on the lake at their family cabin. The Averys live in Excelsior and attend Excelsior Covenant Church.

Dan Beckering
Head of School
B.A. Secondary Education, Dordt College
M.A. Educational Leadership, St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
First year at SWCHS: 2001

Dan Beckering grew up on a farm in Southwestern Minnesota. He earned his degree in secondary education in history and physical education at Dordt College in Iowa and his masters degree in educational leadership at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Mr. Beckering has taught history and Bible classes at SWCHS, served as the varsity boys basketball coach, and the dean of student before starting his role as the head of school in 2009. He and his wife, Laura, have been married since 2000. They have four future graduates of SWCHS, Caleb (’22), Bennet (’22), Kylie (’24), and Avery (’27).

In his free time, Mr. Beckering loves hunting, fishing, sports, taking family road trips, and spending time with friends and family. He is passionate about raising up the next generation of Christian disciples and leaders.

Dr. Thor Benson
Science Faculty
Ph.D. Science Education, University of Minnesota
M.A. Educational Leadership, Bethel University
B.S. Kinesiology, Wheaton College
ACSI Certified, State Teaching License
First year at SWCHS: 2015
House Sapientia

Dr. Thor Benson seeks to cultivate an engaging teaching and learning environment for our students and faculty. He also
teaches a variety of science courses (biology, physics, and Earth & Space science) and has been the head coach for the boys lacrosse program since its inception. He also facilitates the Leadership Academy for students who feel called to serve and lead the SWCHS
community.

Since starting his teaching career in 2002, Dr. Benson has held a variety of roles as a teacher in K-8 physical education, middle school and high school science, and as a college professor.

During his 10-years in higher education, he was a professor of science education and the director of the college’s honors program. Throughout his teaching experience, Dr. Benson has taught every grade from kindergarten to graduate students and has had the privilege of teaching a few students during their elementary, high school, and college careers.

Dr. Benson also serves as a Teaching for Transformation school designer with the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education, helping schools engage in distinctively Christian
learning.

Dr. Benson and his wife, Kettie, live in Chanhassen and have three children, Molly, Lily, and Soren. They attend Grace Church. As an extreme extrovert and mediocre athlete, Dr. Benson can be found playing a sport or lawn game if he is not mountain biking or hanging with family.

Matt Berka
English Faculty
B.A. Communication Arts & Literature Education 5-12: Bethel University
M.A. English, Ohio University
ACSI Certified, State Teaching License
First year at SWCHS: 2016
House Fortitudo

Matt Berka joined the faculty at Southwest Christian in 2016 and teaches junior English. He’s originally from Wisconsin but moved to Minnesota to attend Bethel University. While Wisconsin still plays an important role in his life, he’s happy to call Minnesota home. After graduating with a degree in English education, Mr. Berka earned a master’s degree in English from Ohio University. Mr. Berka and his wife, Rachel have two young children (Lucy and Micah) and are members at Westwood Community Church. Outside of school responsibilities, Mr. Berka enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing sports, reading, and talking about The Beatles.

Jennifer Bettin
Human Resources Associate
First Year at SWCHS: 2020
House Veritas

Jennifer and her husband, John, have four children. Jake and Saraphina attend SWCHS, Ole attends CHAT, and Anaika attends Chapel Hill. The Bettin family are big supporters of adoption as three of their kids were adopted from Haiti.

Jennifer grew up in the Chaska area and currently has the best commute living across the soccer field from school. Her family enjoys the constant flow of friends popping over from school.

Prior to joining the SWCHS Human Resources department, Jennifer spent a number of years in human resources and ministry positions.

Outside of raising a family and working, Jennifer enjoys attending the many activities her children are involved in and squeezing in some reading while waiting for kids to finish practices.

Ann Broscoff
Director of Student Services
M.A. Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities, Bethel University
B.S. Secondary Science Education/Chemistry, University of Minnesota
ACSI Certified, State Teaching License
First year at SWCHS: 1996
House Fide

Mrs. Broscoff has served the SWCHS community since its inaugural year in 1996, during which she taught all the science and math courses. Prior to that, she taught at Bethany Academy, as well as Burnsville and Richfield public schools for a total of seven years. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Science Education from the University of Minnesota, and later received a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Bethel.

As the director of student services, her deep hope is that all students would know that they are created in the image of God and would fully respond to God’s call on their lives knowing that God has fully equipped them to be successful. She would like to be known as one who cares deeply.

Mrs. Broscoff has been married to her husband, Keith, since 1979, and they have three grown children (all of which are SWCHS alumni, two of whom are active in education) along with eight grandchildren. She and her husband live on 5 acres near New Auburn, MN on five acres with their horses and her dog, Patty. She can often be seen at the Scott County Fair grounds cheering on her husband, daughter, and grandson as they compete in barrel races and horse shows. The Broscoffs also enjoy fishing, camping, and spending time with the family whenever possible. They attend Hutchinson Evangelical Free Church, where both serve on the worship team. Her favorite Bible passage is Ps. 37:4-7.

Dr. Donald Carlson
Bible Faculty
Ph.D. Judaic, Hebraic, and Cognate Studies, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
M.Phil. Hebraic and Cognate Studies, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
B.A. Biblical Studies, University of Northwestern-St. Paul
ACSI Certified
First year at SWCHS: 2015
House Fortitudo

In the summer after his junior year of high school, a younger Mr. Carlson cruised down County Rd 81 (near Osseo MN), going some 62 mph on a pair of rollerblades, holding to the back of van (it was a cool old van, with one of those ‘ladder racks’ on the back, next to the spare tire. Remember those?). This went on for just a couple miles before it had to end. He turned out feeling great, but the skates didn’t make it.

It was in college where he met his true love. Justine Noel said “yes” (!) and they got married in 1999, one week after graduation. They moved to Cincinnati for Donald to work on his doctorate. There they lived until 2015. During that time Mr. Carlson became Dr. Carlson. and the Lord would bless both he and Mrs. Carlson (that’s Justine, from above) with four lovely daughters. They now make their home together here in Chaska.

Dr. Carlson a committed follower-in-practice of King Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God. He and his family are members at Church of the Cross in Hopkins.

He loves being physically active; he loves being in nature. But he also thrives on deep contemplative study, reading old texts written in dead languages to extract their wisdom for living life to the fullest.

That and he rides a 1982 Honda CX-500 Custom

DeJong, Matt
Math Faculty
M.A. School Leadership, Dordt College
B.A. Secondary Education, Math, Dordt College
First year at SWCHS: 2019
House Fortitudo

After graduating from Dordt University in 2014, Mr. DeJong began his career as a high school math teacher at Westminster Christian Academy near St. Louis, MO. While at Westminster, he served as a coach for several seasons, as a chaperone for summer trips, as a department chair for the math department, and as the faculty leader for the school’s chapel band. During those 5 years in St. Louis, he also completed his Master’s degree in education from Dordt University.

Mr. DeJong, his wife, Mia, and their Miniature Australian Shepherd (Rosie) moved to Southwest Minneapolis in the summer of 2019 and have been enjoying the discovery of great restaurants and lakes in their neighborhood since then. At Southwest, Mr. DeJong coached girls’ basketball for two years, and he currently leads the worship team during Encounter. He loves teaching math, but teaching statistics has been his favorite.

The DeJongs have a son named Arie born in September, 2021.

DeVries, Kimberly
Instrumental Director
M.A Choral Conducting, SUNY Stony Brook
B.A Music, Luther College
First year at SWCHS: 2019
House Sapientia

Kimberly DeVries and her husband, Brian, have been married 28 years and recently moved back to Chaska from Virginia, where she taught music, choir, orchestra, and worship at Fresta Valley Christian School. Prior to her move to Virginia, Mrs. DeVries was the music and choir teacher at Calvin Christian School (now Avail Academy) in Edina. She has over 20 years of experience teaching preschool through college, conducting orchestras, bands, choirs, vocal ensembles, opera, musicals and leading worship.

Mrs. DeVries is not new to the SWCHS community, as both her daughters, Elyse (23) and Anna (21), attended SWCHS before moving to Virginia.  Besides her love of music and ability to play multiple instruments, you may also see her pick up a volleyball and/or basketball from time to time, which are two other favorite things she enjoys doing!

Vicki Dillon
Substitute Coordinator
First Year at SWCHS: Spring 2017
House Fortitudo

Vicki Dillon is a native of St. Louis, MO and worked in multiple areas in Upper Management with a large retailer for over 30 years. These positions moved her family from Missouri to Indianapolis, Michigan, Nebraska and Minnesota. Mrs. Dillon has a B.S. in Business Administration, and a MBA from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. Mrs. Dillon also currently teaches in Adult Education for Eastern Carver County and Minnetonka School Districts.

Mrs. Dillon and her husband Todd reside in Excelsior and they have one son Brock who lives in St. Louis, MO. They are members of Westwood Community Church.

Mrs. Dillon enjoys traveling and exploring new locations, cooking, shopping, and being physically active, walking, biking, and other fun activities. Her favorite vacation spot is Hawaii.