News A10
New middle school teachers This year, six teachers joined the middle school faculty.
Joe Medina
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Department: Visual Arts Medina previously worked for the photography department at Yuma High School and Arizona Western College. “I cannot wait to see what inspires students in this community.”
Adam Rose
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The Chronicle
New faces on campus
Seven new teachers joined the upper school faculty, four new to Harvard-Westlake and three from the Middle School.
English Department
Amber Caron
Amber Caron is teaching English II and English III: Living America this year. “It has the spirit of a place that people want to be in,” Caron said. “Harvard-Westlake seems like a unit. You walk onto campus because you want to be here and are eager to learn.” Caron graduated from the University of Hartford in Connecticut and at-
Sasha Watson joined the English department and is teaching English II and AP Language and Composition. Watson is a specialist in 20th-century French poetry and taught French language and literature at New York University and Barnard College. She was an arts journalist after college, and has written articles for the Los Angeles Times, Slate Magazine
Rose has substituted for English, History and Communications departments since 2005. “I am ready to get into my own classroom and have my own students.”
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Department: Foreign Language (French) Sampson replaced French teacher Stephanie Portal, who is on maternity leave and will not return. “I’ve heard that [the students] are hardworking and that makes me excited as a teacher.”
Nate Cardin
Nate Cardin is one of the two new chemistry teachers on the upper school science department staff this year. “I really wanted to teach of chemistry and science at the high school level because I remember the imapct my teacher had on me,” Cardin said. He finished his graduate studies with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford this year. He received his un-
Hilary Ethe ’00 moved from the middle school to teach Advanced Placement Environmental Science at the Upper School. After five years of teaching Integrated Science I and II, Ethe said she is excited about her move and the new experiences to come. She also looks forward to the familiarity of the cam-
Thomas is substituting for Anamaria Ayala, a middle school spanish teacher on maternity leave.
Jill Turner
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Department: English Turner used to teach English III Honors and Advanced Placement English at the Upper School. “I feel like I’ll get to see smart, motivated students working their way through literary analysis.”
TianTian Wang
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Department: Foreign Language (Chinese) Wang is from Nanjing and and has Master’s Degree in Chinese.
dergraduate degree in chemistry from Dartmouth in 2005. This year will be his first year teaching after graduate school, but Cardin taught in the classroom and laboratory at both Dartmouth and Stanford. “I’m really excited to experience all the different aspects the school has,” Cardin said. — Daniel Kim
Hilary Ethe
Department: Foreign Language (Spanish)
“I hope to continue to learn about how a successful school operates.”
and Publisher’s Weekly. This will be her first year teaching high school. She wanted to either teach French of English. “I want to teach depth and show students how far you can go into literature,” Watson said. “I want to show students that you can always find yourself in great literature.” — Micah Sperling
Science Department
Shoshanna Thomas
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tended graduate school at Northeastern University. She later taught there for three years. Recently, Caron worked for a nonprofit organization, Write Girl, where she taught pregnant and teenage parents creative writing. She also participated in a creative writing mentoring program with Write Girl. — Mariel Brunman
Sasha Watson
Department: English
Kathryn Sampson
Sept. 7, 2011
Narae Park
Narae Park was hired by the Upper School Science Department to teach two regular chemistry classes and two honors chemistry classes. Park majored in Biochemistry/ Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego and received her Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.
pus and the chances for good workouts walking the stairs at the Upper School. “I try to remember what it’s like to take AP classes and understand the associated challenges from the students perspective,” Ethe said. “If I can use this knowledge, I think I can become a better teacher.” — Ana Scuric
Park taught chemistry throughout college and graduate school. Since her graduation, Park has gone on a solo backpacking trip in Europe and has traveled all over the country, visiting Hawaii, Kansas, New Jersey, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. — Sarah Novicoff
Visual Arts Department
Alyssa Sherwood
Middle school visual arts teacher Alyssa Sherwood transfered to theupper school this school year and is teaching Video Art and Drawing and Painting. Sherwood previously worked at East Los Angeles Community College teaching 3-D animation. She was also part of the teaching staff at California State Summer school for the Arts, a summer
program at the California Institute of the Arts focused on middle and high school students. At the Middle School, Sherwood took over Andrew LauGel’s photography classes when he fell ill last year. “Those two disciplines are more from my background becaue I’m an animator,” Sherwood said. — Beatrice Fingerhut
“Teaching teenagers will be an new experience.” PHOTOS BY SARAH NOVICOFF