Faculty Summer Enrichment

From attending conferences to completing master's degrees and traveling around the world, our teachers spent their summer pursuing their love of learning.

• English and history teacher Ms. Abigail Murphy traveled to Armenia and Turkey. She had the chance to visit the remains of Troy, which she looks forward to sharing with her students in Ancient Civilizations.
• Ms. Rebecca Nielsen, who teaches World Literature, Spanish and technology, spent the month of June in Spain at la Universidad de Alcala in Alcala de Henares, where she studied Spanish in an intensive course for teachers.
• French teacher Mrs. Kim Lynch completed her master's in German at Middlebury College.
• Mrs. Becky Roberts, Middle School humanities coordinator and champion of the new ninth grade writing program, completed master's level courses in literature at Middlebury College's Breadloaf School of English: Narrative traditions and the Bible.
• Upper School English and theology teacher Ms. Mary Jane Rice participated in an Advanced Placement English Literature conference with a special focus on Shakespeare at Rice University in Texas.
• Studio Art teacher Ms. Christina Ferguson built a home art studio, where she creates encaustic paintings (like the ancient Egyptians).
• Latin teacher and chorale director Mrs. Karen Demirjian attended Harvard Summer School and studied two sets of poetry that preceded the Aeneid: Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics. She traveled (twice) to the Aspen Musical Festival in CO to hear some of the finest up-and-coming young professionals (including math and science teacher Mrs. Kasia Weyman's daughter and son), as well as world-famous, established artists perform.
• Veteran math teacher Mrs. Susan Leist enjoyed an awe-inspiring trip to Italy with our juniors and seniors and returned to run our summer math camp and work on a curriculum project with colleague Ms. Rachel Sun.
• Spanish teacher Ms. Elizabeth Mahoney spent her summer studying in Barcelona and developed additional contacts for our growing exchange program. She spent time at the Canigo School, where many of our current and potential exchange students study.
• English and History teacher Mrs. Heather McKinney is a world traveler who visited the cities of Luxembourg, Dublin and London as well as the countries of Germany and Austria this past year.