VIEW F ROM THE TOP
SPRING 2014
something special M A R I O PA R I A N T E 2000 - 2014
A
fter 14 years of teaching religion and social studies at FSHA, Mario Pariante is hanging up his hat and retiring at the end of this school year. Though he’s quick to caution: “Retirement, for me, does not mean sitting on a beach with a drink reading a book!” he says. Instead, Pariante is heading to his beloved Hawaii to pursue his varied interests, many of which he’s already started to enjoy more often thanks to his part-time schedule in the 2013-14 school year. They include refurbishing and playing his Guild 12-string guitar and learning Mandarin. “I have enjoyed practicing my Mandarin with my Chinese students, especially Dora Huang ’14!” he says. When he’s no longer tied to a school calendar, his life will also include a great deal of travel, especially to his native New York. He leaves behind a storied Academic Decathlon program, which he took over in 2006 and expanded into two teams. Pariante also broadened the travel portion of the team curriculum, taking students to locations such as Paris for the competition’s French Revolution theme and London for “The Age of Empire.” Several times, he’s been able to show students around his hometown of New York. “I love it: When I’m sharing my city, I’m sharing me,” he says. In April, Stanford University flew him up to Palo Alto for the J. Wallace Sterling Award ceremony, where Nicole DeMont ’09 was being honored as one of the top 25 graduates from Stanford’s College of Humanities
02 18
and Sciences. Each recipient chose one high-school “mentor” teacher to be honored as well, and she chose Pariante. “It was really lovely and humbling,” he says. While Pariante will miss singing at FSHA Masses (and teasing Katy Sadler over the PA system), his passion for teaching lives on – he says that he’s likely to return to teaching part time at some point because he loves it too much. Wherever he ends up, though, it won’t be quite the same. “I have a grandmother who is Grace, an aunt who is Grace, a sister who is Grace and five cousins who are Graces. I have been surrounded by ‘grace’ since I was born! My 14 years at FSHA have been another grace in my life,” he says. “Although a mere ‘thank you’ to the Dominican sisters, my colleagues and my wonderful students is completely inadequate, I can do little but to place my gratitude in words. Thank you, FSHA! Or more appropriately, mahalo!”