After joining Belmont Hill’s faculty in 2015, Mr. English will leave to pursue a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education next fall. Having spent two years as a science teacher, art instructor, football coach, lacrosse coach, and an overseer of the iLab, Mr. English departs Belmont Hill having fully utilized the full breadth of his talents and interests for the betterment of students and the School itself.
Most Belmont Hill students are unaware that a print of Mr. English’s is featured in the Melvoin Academic Center’s first floor faculty room. Simple but striking, the print was collected by Mrs. Doherty last year when she organized a faculty art collection. Mr. English, one of a few teachers who have produced a collection of visual art, majored in both Physics and Visual Arts as a 2014 graduate of Bowdoin College, and was thus given the chance to showcase his work at a Bowdoin gallery during his final year as a student. The print that remains in the Melvoin faculty room, a remnant from that senior show, and Mr. English’s general passion for printmaking and painting speak to his well-rounded nature.
In addition to teaching Middle School art in his two years at Belmont Hill, Mr. English has coached both 4th lacrosse and 5th football. A talented athlete at a secondary school more than quadruple the size of Belmont Hill, Council Rock High School North in his hometown of Newtown, Pennsylvania, English played basketball, lacrosse, and football. Following his high school graduation in 2010, Mr. English went on to play four years of college football as a TE at Bowdoin.
It was also at Bowdoin that English first grew interested in mentorship and education. Joining the Residential Life team at Bowdoin during his sophomore year, Mr. English became involved in helping first-year students acclimate to college. Becoming a Head Proctor during his senior year, he managed a first-year dorm and handled residential conflicts, as well as budgeting and building expenses. A summer job at Upward Bound, a government-sponsored educational program that aids low-income, first-generation students in their preparation for college, similarly inspired English to seek a position as a Physics teacher at the Forman School the year after his graduation. Ties to Bowdoin’s football program and experience as a teacher at the Forman School in Connecticut both led English to Belmont. When Mr. English was hoping to relocate from his position at the Forman School in early 2015, he reached out to Mr. Butler, a fellow alumni of Bowdoin’s football program. Mr. Butler, also a member of the Science Department, encouraged Mr. English to apply for an open position in the department, and he excitedly accepted the position when he received it.
Aside from art and athletics, Mr. English has primarily served as a faculty member in the Science Department. The Physics component of his unique double major has allowed him to teach Physics to seniors and Engineering to third formers, while skill with coding and “Maker” education provided Mr. English with the background to instruct Computer Science 1 this past year. A mushrooming expertise in the application of technology to science education coincided well with his position as a faculty overseer of the iLab, where he would advise Middle School Robotics and help students code, 3D print, and use other advanced machinery in the innovation lab.
Due partially to his experience in the iLab, Mr. English intends to concentrate in Technology, Innovation, and Education as he pursues his master’s degree (M.Ed.). After completing his master’s, Mr. English is entertaining the possibility of designing an online educational platform that develops coursework and tools to help teachers teach engineering, coding, and maker science to elementary through high school students. As with so many of his projects at Bowdoin and Belmont Hill, such an effort would combine the best of Mr. English’s skills with science, art, and education. The entire Belmont Hill community wishes Mr. English luck in graduate school and in this ambitious, but extremely valuable potential endeavor.
