Catching Up With... John Nicollucci: Ahead of His Time

John Nicollucci joined Crescent in 1994, starting in Middle School and moving to Upper School until his retirement in 2013. He taught geography exclusively.

Daniel Tiberini: What led you to choose Crescent?

John Nicollucci: A teacher at Crescent named Rex Taylor was interested in learning more about geographic information systems (GIS). I was teaching GIS at Dante Alighieri Academy and was involved with Ryerson University (now TMU). Rex called Ryerson, and they said to get ahold of this guy, Nicollucci. Rex and I started working together on a workbook. An opportunity came up at Crescent, and I took it. I never looked back.

DT: It’s amazing that we were learning about GIS a quarter of a century ago, and now we can’t do anything in our daily life without it. It’s how GPS works, how we get our stuff from Amazon and Uber Eats. None of these companies can function without that data and how it interplays with GIS. What did you know back then that very few others knew at that time?

JN: One thing that I did know was that spatial analysis goes on every day. When I saw GIS, I thought, what a great opportunity to teach all aspects of geography and get technology involved. Everything I see is spatial; everything I see I connect to geography.

DT: When we were learning about GIS, our peers in other schools were learning about provinces, capitals and world cities. It wasn’t commonplace. What should we be teaching today in geography courses that would be applicable 20 years from now?

JN: Virtual reality, where you could put on a VR set and literally go into a volcano and fly right over it and almost touch it. That would be number one for me. And social media. I would love to teach how social media reacts in a spatial world where space doesn’t come into play. Remember the word diffusion? How things get from one point to the other? It used to take a while, and now it takes seconds.

DT: In the context of the business world, we talk about globalization and deglobalization, the political and geopolitical implications of reshoring, domestic production, and migration. It all comes back to geography.

JN: When I see something on the news, I often wonder if one of my former

By Daniel Tiberini ’03

students would say, “I remember doing that in geography.” That would be the greatest compliment for me.

DT: You’ve been retired from Crescent now for eight years. What have you been doing since then?

JN: I supply taught at Crescent and Havergal for two and a half years which helped wean myself off teaching. I highly recommend that because, in the first September of my retirement, I instantly missed the students, missed the interaction. And a shout out to Mike Goldstein ’08. He got me interested in mountain bikes. After I retired, I went to Guelph for ten days and became a professional bike mechanic. It was one of the most difficult courses I ever took in my life! And not many people know this, but I’m an avid stamp collector, and I continue that. I got into more gaming and colouring. Adult colouring is the most relaxing thing you can do.

DT: You were obviously selected for this magazine because you’re a student favourite. In your opinion, why do you think that was the case?

JN: It’s me being me. My daughter’s a teacher, and I’ll tell you what I always tell her—try to make a connection with every student. If you show interest in the things that interest a student, all of a sudden, he’ll go, “This teacher gets me.”

DT: Anything else you want to share with me?

JN: I did a lot of travelling with Crescent. I got to go to Nicaragua and work on an actual volcano with the kids and Washington, D.C. I got to go to Italy and show the students my culture and where I came from. Crescent allowed me to do that. That was great. I’m glad I remembered to throw that in.