After working at the Rivers school for the past three years, Mrs. O’Connor joins the Belmont Hill community again, having worked as a teacher and coach here over ten years ago. Mrs. O’Connor will be teaching First Form Science, Biology, and Chemistry, as well as coaching the middle school track team in the spring. Mrs. O’Connor has loved the outdoors and animals ever since she was a little kid. She grew up in Manchester, Connecticut, and attended Williams College, where she started as a bio major, but then switched to neuroscience and psychology, as well as joining the pre-med program. After graduating, she worked at Mass General Hospital in Boston, where she helped run a study on a drug that treats osteoporosis. Working at MGH made her realize she wanted a more exciting and sociable job, where she could work with children or animals. She got both of these things when she moved to New York to work at a boarding school where the kids help take care of the animals at a local zoo. She eventually moved back to Cambridge, and after working at a few schools in the area she found Belmont Hill and started working here in 2002.
”I found my home here at Belmont Hill,” she says. ”I love the rigor balanced with the relationships that students have with the faculty and with each other.” She taught a myriad of science classes and coached varsity cross country and track, until she left the school in 2006 to start a family with her husband. They moved from Cambridge to Southborough, and although she was sad to be out of the city, it gave her an opportunity to be closer to nature. After her children reached an age where her constant supervision was no longer needed, she began to look for teaching positions again, and eventually found her way back to Belmont Hill. We are all glad that Mrs. O’Connor is back at Belmont Hill, and look forward to getting to know her better in the coming months!
