The Spectator ● September 30, 2016
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Features Stuyvesant’s Newest Teachers By Archi Das, Fatima Irfan, Elizabeth Lawrence, Andrea Ma, Maya Mitrasinovic, Sophie Watwood, and Alexandra Wen
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Jeanie Chu, Art
Though Chu is nervous that, at a STEM school like Stuyvesant, her students might not appreciate the art that they learn about, she is excited to teach high school. Prior to teaching high school students, she taught middle schoolers. Chu completes her days by spending quality time with her son, Theodore, and enjoying New York City culture, whether it is through the multitude of restaurants and museums the city has to offer or by taking strolls with her husband down Riverside Park.
Kristy Cimaglia, Health Cimaglia grew up passionate about cooking, swimming, and other healthy activities. After becoming interested in health as an undergrad, Cimaglia became a public health educator. “I thought, ‘How great would it be to be a regular health ed teacher?’” Cimaglia said. “How wonderful would it be to work in the city schools?” She taught in multiple schools, most of them in Long Island and two in the city, before coming to Stuyvesant. Cimaglia said that, to her, health is one of the most important things. She has taught both children and adults alike. “It’s so real life, and it was always a favorite subject of mine,” she said. “I wanted to become a teacher to get [students] inspired.”
After being recommended to the Assistant Principal of Mathematics by a former supervisor, Hiller was welcomed into the school very quickly, interviewing on a Friday afternoon and being hired the following Monday. Based on his passion for math, it’s easy to see why. “It’s puzzles and toys and all that stuff wrapped up in one. Since I was a kid, I’ve loved it, I have a job where I get to do it all the time, I love everything
about it. Math is truth, and it’s the only place in the world that I know of where you can find it.” Outside of intellectual pursuits, Hiller’s main focus is personal health and athleticism. During the summer, he ran practically every day on trails in Central Park. He also plays soccer, as a goalie. “It’s nice to take a break from the brain stuff and take care of my body,” he said.
Harold Stephan, Music
Stefan Engquist / The Spectator
While Cimaglia emphasises how much she can go into in-depth material about health, it’s more about teaching people than trying to get them to memorize every aspect of the body. “It’s about helping kids not get into [drugs and alcohol], into peer
Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator
“I love creating,” Chu said. “It is a part of who we are as people.” Chu has wanted to be a teacher since fourth grade and has loved art her whole life. When she was a freshman in high school, she wanted to be a graphic designer, to the dismay of her parents, who found a career related to art to be less stable. However, once in college, she decided to pursue an artistic path, transferring to art school and majoring in painting.
Hiller, who teaches both geometry and calculus, got into education in the purest way possible — he was inspired by a fervent desire to improve the world. “I took a study abroad semester in Nepal to study Buddhism, and while I was there, I saw true suffering and poverty,” he said. “One night, I was overwhelmed, and I broke down weeping about the pain that these people were going through, and I decided that I get to do what I want, and I’m going to fix stuff like that. But my thought was, how is America going to fix the world if we are a mess in it of ourselves?” After this epiphany, he joined Teach for America and moved from Arizona straight out to the Bronx, where he worked in the roughest schools he could find. Stuyvesant is very different than his old school. “It isn’t going to be open for much longer, and I got really frustrated dealing with the administration and the Board of Education hurting my children. I fought and fought for years and never made any progress and so I felt that I was getting older. It was time for me to have great kids like you guys.”
pressure,” she said. Aside from health, Cimaglia also has a passion for theater. She took a few classes for acting before and enjoys the many shows that the city has. “It’s so exciting, being in one of the art capitals of the world,” she said.
“When I was in middle school, I fell in love with the sound of the piano and recordings specifically by Billy Joel. I would sit and listen to the recordings that he would make, and I would hear all the different layers of instruments and how they supported the vocals,” Stephan said. Stephan’s passion for music began at an early age, and his love for music remained steady throughout his life. As an undergraduate, he taught at The Center for Electronic Music, but his career later took him on a different path. He’s performed on Broadway, co-written a hit song for MattyB, and done commercial music for companies like Chevy, Burger King, and Sears. Prior to teaching at Stuyvesant, Stephan was part of a modern band program at City Knoll Middle School.
Mika Simoncelli / The Spectator
Eli Economou / The Spectator
Steve Hiller, Math
“I realized I really wanted to focus on voice,” he said, “so I was so grateful to come to Stuyvesant in the choral department.” Stephan wants to share his experiences in the music industry, as well as empower students and aspir-
ing music professionals. In regard to pursuing music professionally, he said, “I think the most important thing is to be in it for the love, especially in the music industry, you really need to be in it for the long term.”
Rosemary Polanco, History
Heather Huhn, English
Xin Italie / The Spectator
Until her senior year in college, Huhn was ready to be lawyer. However, that summer, she did an internship in Washington, D.C., where she worked with children. She realized that, as much as the prospects of being a lawyer appealed to her, the path she would be taking wouldn’t be helping anybody—but being a teacher would. Huhn started to teach elementary school. For two years, she taught first graders. First grade is the core year that you learn how to read, so her job was quite stressful. Huhn described it as an incredible amount of pressure, saying, “If students leave me not really understanding or not have a complete concept of how to read, then they go to second grade, and third grade, and on, and on, without that background skill—that foundational skill.” That’s not to say that teaching high school English is easy: the stakes are just lower. Making lesson plans is really challenging, because a lot of time and effort has to go into making them engaging. A big part of teaching for Huhn is “Making sure that [she is] giving Stuyvesant students an experience that they’re going to walk away from and find meaningful,” she said. Mika Simoncelli / The Spectator
Dr. Polanco is eager to indulge in Stuyvesant’s unique environment. “The students are just very inquisitive, you know, they’re asking great questions, and they’re kind of up for anything,” she said. Polanco spoke about how she appreciates being able to deviate from the lesson from time to time if a student brings up an interesting point; a less strict notion of order enables her to let the class discussion flow organically. Having majored in American studies and women’s studies, Polanco has always had a passion for
learning about history. In her time here at Stuyvesant, she hopes to become involved with Model UN, which is something she has never participated in but has always wanted to. Polanco hopes to share her love for knitting with the students of Stuyvesant, perhaps as soon as next semester, in a setting where “kids can just relax and learn a new skill.” Definitely ready to start her recruitment process, she explained “it’s great for your surgical skills and hand dexterity, you know, if you want to be a doctor.”