Gabriel Amadeus Cooney
Sheryl Cabral recently said. “But I’m concerned when students become too determined to follow just one route.” Sheryl’s effort to broaden students’ perspectives is one reason Head of School Margarita Curtis calls her “a deeply caring, empathetic educator.” You can trace Sheryl’s approach to her college days. After graduating from St. Olaf College in 1983, she joined the Peace Corps, taking to heart her school’s conviction that students should strive to “lead lives of unselfish service to others, and to be responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world.” She wanted to go to Thailand, but got a call asking if she’d consider teaching in Kenya. This changed her life and would serve as a lesson to be shared, years later, with her Deerfield students. In Kenya, Sheryl met Jim, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. Less than five months later, they were married. But before their I dos, Sheryl says, they needed two things: “Exact change for the marriage license, and an acknowledgement from Jim—required by the authorities—that he would have only one wife.” With those details squared away, they were hitched in Nairobi. After a teaching stint in New York, and after earning her master’s degree, Sheryl began her Deerfield career in 1989. She and Jim—followed by their children, Justin and Angela ’15—have been here ever since. Recently completing a five-year term as head of Deerfield’s math department, Sheryl helped create an online summer tutorial program, allowing students to email, Skype, and talk with math teachers by phone. Launched in 2012, the program tries to level the playing field, as many parents cannot afford a private tutor. “The goal,” Sheryl says, “is for every kid to have free access to quality material and a live teacher to help them achieve their greatest potential.” Sheryl’s commitment to students is also reflected in her work on six Deerfield committees and through her new role as Assistant Academic Dean/Study Skills Coordinator. In 2009, she received an award for excellence in teaching from the Mathematics Association of America. It’s fitting that she holds a chair honoring Helen Childs Boyden, among the Academy’s most revered and devoted teachers. The chair was established in 1960 with a gift from Mrs. Gordon W. Reed, mother of Thomas Reed ’51, and grandmother of Andrew Reed ’86. Margarita Curtis emphasizes that “Sheryl’s ethic of service manifests itself not only in her daily work with students, and her eagerness to make math relevant and enjoyable to all, but also in her leadership of the Cambiando Vidas program. She has invited scores of Deerfield students and adults to experience the joy of working collaboratively to make a difference.”
Alternate Routes
along albany road
“I value that kids are goaloriented at Deerfield, and it’s great that it’s cool to be smart and accomplished here,”
Sheryl Cabral— Helen Childs Boyden Distinguished Chair in Teaching by Rob Morgan
“Cambiando Vidas,” Sheryl explains, means “changing lives.” Every June, she leads a trip to the Dominican Republic, where fourteen Deerfield students help build a house for a local family—in five days. “When we arrive, there are maybe one or two courses of concrete blocks. When we leave, less than a week later, the house is complete with running water and electricity.” The students work side-by-side with the family and their neighbors, forging strong bonds. Sheryl enjoys “watching this group of kids, from all socio-economic backgrounds, come together as a team. It’s moving for them to see community in action,” she says. “We talk about it a lot here, but they see it in a new way.” Returning from the Dominican Republic this June, Sheryl emailed her students: “Hello Team! I was struggling to come up with the words to describe my gratitude for your great work and generous spirit when I remembered the list of verbs you generated to describe what we did during the week.” The list includes: carried, shoveled, hammered, painted, cleaned, stumbled, shared, listened, played, won, lost, celebrated, danced, sang, smiled, laughed, cried, loved, and changed. That last one, “changed,” is among Sheryl’s favorites. “The overwhelming response that I get from students is that they go thinking they are going to change the lives of a Dominican family, but realize that their own lives have changed. I’m blessed with the opportunity to lead these trips.” At the end of the year, Sheryl often shows her math students slides of Kenya, and she talks about how she had been on one path, but an opportunity, a simple phone call, set her on another. “There is so much available to these kids, so many avenues of exploration. I want them to know that.” ••
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