With Varied Outlooks, New Teachers Arrive

By Adam Rubinfield '98

Dedicated, intelligent, helpful, learned, diligent, experienced. These are just a few of the words to describe the incoming group of new teachers to the upper school. One of the most important words might be varied. Each individual teacher has different interests and experiences from any other one teacher.

An example of such a varied teacher is Craig Foster, a graduate of Princeton University with a BA in mathematics. Although very skilled in mathematics, Mr. Foster also has many other experiences that seem to contribute to his teaching abilities. For a few summers, Mr. Foster served as a counselor at a camp for urban youth in New Jersey. He says it was a valuable experience, not just being with young people, but also seeing the change in the students, from individuals who only worked on their self- image to a group working towards a common goal. Besides an immense interest in mathematics and physics, Mr. Foster also enjoys painting and outdoor activities, such as camping. He plans to take some kind of role in the ultimate Frisbee team here at GA, especially helping them enter more tournaments to gain valuable playing experience.

Greg Devine is a graduate of Williams College with a double major in physics and music. Perhaps one of the most interesting tasks Mr Devine has undertaken was founding an engineering program at his old school, the Delbarton School in Morristown, NJ. In this program, the team would receive a task from a company such as Panasonic and work at school, trying to complete the task. One problem was to build something that could get up a ramp, grab a tennis ball and go down the other ramp. The commitment to arts at GA was definitely interesting to Mr. Devine because of his interest in music, both as a trumpet player and a music listener. Mr Devine is considering trying to play the trumpet in one of our many musical groups. Although off the subject, Mr. Devine said that he "would like to drive in the Indianapolis 500." When asked if this shows on the road, he quickly responded, "No comment."

As a French teacher, Linda Test has taught at the Shipley School and at the Westtown School. Although teaching the actual language of French is important to Mrs. Test, she feels that teaching the culture of the country is also important. That is why she has spent around one and a half years in France, learning the language and culture after college. Perhaps significant in her teaching habits in French was a professor she had in college. In his class, she learned about a rapid fire style of teaching he utilized, forcing students to act on instinct when answering language questions. In this way, they improved their ability to speak the language. Although she may not be as tough as this professor, Mrs. Test will have the enthusiasm that he had. She says that she seems to center her life around school and her three children, and that she enjoys other activities but doesn't have much time for them.

Mark Rabuck is excited to return to GA. As a graduate from the class of 1986, he was a student of Mr. Mattern and Mr. Reydel. Now, he seems to be filling their shoes, instead of being stomped by them. While mostly taking the spots left empty by the departure of Mr. Reydel, Mr. Rabuck will also teach some of the European History classes that Mr. Mattern had formerly taught. Mr. Rabuck has an immense interest in history, especially Medieval history. While working in a library, he was directed to translate some 800 year old documents. One of these documents he found to contain a kind of story of racism in the 1100-1200's. Using this as an example, Mr. Rabuck seems to find that we can look at many happenings and ideas that occurred as early as the Dark Ages and still see some kind of reflection or translation of those ideas in our culture today. While he mostly enjoys reading and studying our past, Mr. Rabuck also enjoys traveling, and encourages students to take advantage of any study abroad programs that exist in either high school or college.

The excitement and interest generated by students and faculty when David Hillinck visited our school last year was what surprised him most of all. He liked he fact that he would have a chance to get involved with the students. As a principal Mr. Hillinck had to take care of the nitty gritty details in Sacramento, such as parking lot duty: "I had to do it, but it wasn't that exciting. I taught one class a day and that was the part of the day I looked forward to the most." So, when he came to Pennsylvania, he was interested in getting more involved with the students. He has been busy over the last few months, however. With a 2 year old and a 4 year old, settling into a new area is difficult, so he and his wife have spent most of the time, finding a home, finding a school, finding care for their children and just settling in. Mr. Hillinck has also worked for the government as a linguist, and found it most interesting. Perhaps, one of Mr. Hillinck's greatest feats was an appearance on Jeopardy, where he won 4 games, made it to the tournament of champions and placed third in the finals!

Like most of our settled teachers here at G.A., the incoming class of new faculty seem to have that drive to get involved, and that knowledge that we sometimes take for granted. From driving in the Indy 500 to appearing on Jeopardy, our new faculty have much more than M.A.'s or Ph.D.'s, they have commitment and dreams and the drive to help us all.