Moving Onward

Departing Faculty Share Fond Memories of Good Counsel

▲ Bill Jones and STEM alumni at his retirement celebration

“Engineering is very much like art. You have an idea and a vision, and you make it come about."

— Bill Jones

“Engineering is very much like art. You have an idea and a vision, and you make it come about,” says Bill Jones, who directed the STEM program at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School for the past eight years. Jones retired in the spring of 2022, but not without making his mark on the school and the lives of over 100 graduates of the program.

Jones started teaching science at Good Counsel in 2006. He became STEM Director in 2014 and under his leadership, the program’s graduates have been accepted into prestigious engineering programs at universities like Johns Hopkins, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech, the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland.

The STEM program at GC introduces students to engineering concepts through a nationally recognized, hands-on, project-based curriculum called Project Lead the Way. For the fifth consecutive year, GC has been recognized as a Distinguished Project Lead the Way School—a distinction given to only 3% of qualified schools nationally.

To commemorate Jones’s service, alumni, parents and friends joined together to endow a scholarship in his name to provide annual financial assistance to a deserving incoming STEM student. Recipients will be awarded beginning in the 2023-24 academic year.

Students are admitted into the STEM Program prior to freshman year. This year, 60 students were accepted into the program, which previously only accepted 40 per year. The program has grown significantly under Jones’s leadership.

Classes emphasize real-world applications and exposes students to career paths by partnering with local engineering companies. Each STEM class has the opportunity to see engineering in action outside of the school building.

Jones attributes the program’s success to former science chair, Rick Miller. "Rick had the original vision for the GC STEM program,"

he says. “Through his efforts, plans for the physical remodeling of our labs to create two STEM labs and the implementation of the course sequence were created.”

Under Jones’s leadership, the program continues its elite status, as one of only two schools in Maryland to receive the PLTW distinction each of the past four years. Adorning the walls in the STEM lab are the names of every graduate since the program began. Alumni of the program have earned academic scholarships totaling more than $5.5 million.

Each spring, he says, Jones loved watching seniors present their end-ofyear project to an engineering panel; their sense of achievement was palpable. “It’s like being a parent on Christmas morning – you see on their faces the pleasure from what they discovered,” he says. “And when undergraduates would say, ‘Mr. Jones, we love this,’ it made me feel good.”

Interactions and relationships with students and faculty are what he will miss most. “It is a family here at GC. I’ve been blessed be part of it.”

Jones has also enjoyed helping the STEM students gain acceptance into the colleges of their choice. “I am proud of how the program has evolved and how it provides for the students.”

During retirement, Jones plans to enjoy his favorite hobbies – playing volleyball and the guitar – as well as promoting a three-book children’s series he has written. They can be found at Barnes and Noble; the first book is called, “The Storied Adventures of Mr. Spiffos.” It contains short stories about human nature written in a poetic style.

After all, teaching young people important life lessons is what Jones has been doing for 40 years.

Setting the Stage for Greatness

For the past six years, Chris Townsend has served as the mentor for the scenery crew of the Good Counsel Theatre Company, bringing drama productions to life through set design, lighting and artistic talents. He also taught theatre at Good Counsel for five years, until 2022.

Townsend loves when students succeed and grow under his instruction. “Even students who have participated in theatre in the past usually have little or no training in production. When I teach, they sometimes have a ‘lightbulb moment,’ when they suddenly get it,” he says.

“I also appreciate when students come back to me to talk about using the skills they picked up in my classes in their real lives.

Through the years, Townsend used a creative approach to design, such as the minimalist set he created for “Titanic,” using mostly projections to create the setting. This included the infamous iceberg, which suddenly appeared as the titular ship struck it.

Townsend’s favorite set design at GC was for the musical that never happened, “Catch Me If You Can.”

“On Friday we had a dress rehearsal, and everyone was ecstatic; our production was so special. On Saturday, we had a big crew call and finished the scenery. On Monday, the school shut down because of COVID and we never got to perform for an audience,” he says.

His other favorite was the school’s recent show, “Ragtime.” “It was a production where all the elements combined to be more than the sum of the parts. Best theatre you can get at a high school level,” Townsend says.

A New Direction

Counselor Todd Handleman has left Good Counsel after 13 years of providing personal counseling services to students. In his role, he helped students address school-related concerns such as grades, interpersonal problems with family or friends, emotional problems and societal pressures. Students are assigned to one counselor for the duration of their time at the school.

“It is nice to reflect with them about what has happened since they walked through the doors as freshmen,” Handleman says. “Our counseling relationship can start off with something negative, but to be there to share in their successes as well is great.”

“The last couple of years since COVID hit, it’s been so hard,” he says. “You see the kids have more serious things occurring than in the past. It has been really rewarding working with other counselors, teachers, administrators, seeing how everybody seemed to adapt organically throughout the pandemic and how we care for the kids.”

“We’ve all learned on the fly to work fluidly to support the students in the way we haven’t had to in the past. It has been very rewarding to see that evolve organically based on need, and how successful it has been.”

Handleman has joined a private psychotherapy practice, but he says he will miss working with the young people at GC.