New Faculty Profile

By Biruk Meyer, ’26

(This essay was originally published in the Spring 2025 issue of Dragon Tales.)

In years past I’ve often found it difficult to include seventh and eighth graders in BLA. Especially as I got older I felt that the difference between my peers and sixies and 8th graders couldn’t be more evident. As I’ve looked to the future and leaving the BLA community I’ve found that the diversity of age, people, and opinion is one of BLA’s biggest strengths. Having such a hard working and committed group of students that also happen to be very different from one another in other ways creates a unique community of different people with shared goals. I had a sense of superiority purely because of my age and I felt that my classmates worked harder than those in lower grades. While this might be true to an extent, I’ve never heard anyone compare the workload of eighth grade to that of a junior in high school. The stress of preparing for the SATs, managing more complex core classes, and taking on AP courses is simply incomparable. However, the desire to learn and succeed in their endeavors is equally strong at both stages. Judging and making an assessment of someone else purely based on a factor they can’t control such as their age, showed my immaturity and inexperience in the real world. 

While it unfortunately took me years to acknowledge the hard work of younger students, the new faculty that I interviewed all cited the intelligence and hard work of students as one of their favorite things about Latin Academy. Mr. Santee entered the school at the end of last year as a Physics teacher and Mr. Callum is a new chemistry teacher this year. Ms. Jones is a new social worker that joined the BLA community as well. Mr. Callum specifically stated “…the desire to generally perform at one’s best, the academic rigor and expectation that students have for themselves and the community. It’s fun to teach when you have a student body that wants to learn.” Similarly, Ms. Jones said that seeing the talent and hardwork that students displayed were her favorite parts of the school. The strengths of BLA are clearly evident to the new faculty and the community that BLA fosters. These same qualities of diversity and hardwork and their willingness to praise students where they excelled differs strongly from where I struggle to see them when younger classmates were working hard. 

The action of simply taking notice of when someone is working hard and performing at their best and acknowledging that a healthier environment is fostered from born of mutual respect and a shared goal. I can now recognize and respect the achievements and work of students younger than myself because I also was once in their position. The new faculty members show an important lesson about both community and the relationship between teachers and students. Giving credit to the hard work and intelligence of students fosters a better environment for learning because the students both feel validated in their hard work and effort and they appreciate their teachers for the support given to them by their teachers. This is a goal that I would like to work towards in my own interaction with lower classmen; I’d like to feel respectful enough to recognize their perseverance.