Dr. Edrik Lopez
“Flow with the go,” new English department member Dr. Edrik Lopez said when asked the best piece of advice he has ever received. This phrase, not to be confused with “go with the flow,” is a motto expressed regularly in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a type of martial art fighting. His commitment to the adage extends beyond simple terminology, as Dr. Lopez is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has been training with the same club for over a decade.
Born in Puerto Rico, Dr. Lopez has lived in seven states, including Florida, California, and New Jersey. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and before joining Choate’s faculty this fall, Dr. Lopez taught at Deerfield Academy. With experience on both sides of the Choate-Deerfield rivalry, Dr. Lopez believes that the two schools are not as different as one would imagine. “Students from both are brilliant, driven, conscientious, and are very ambitious.” Dr. Lopez moved to Connecticut to be closer to his family and now lives in Owen House with his wife and two sons.
Dr. Lopez, who has taught English ever since becoming a teacher, said, “English is a field that is both old and new, classical and contemporary. I can go from teaching a text that is more than 2,000 years old to one that was published this year from one class to the next. There’s something very humbling and inspiring about the continuation of the human story that I get to witness every year with new students.”
Dr. Lopez teaches freshmen, sophomores, and seniors, and he says he is particularly excited for his course focused on studying postcolonial literature, which he studied at Berkeley. Dr. Lopez will also be interacting with students outside the classroom by coaching both the varsity wrestling team in the winter term and the baseball team in the spring term.
A teacher with a fascinating background who opens his classes with a new joke or riddle every day, Dr. Lopez has a great appreciation and love for the Choate community already, saying, “I love that at a place like this, there are experts at the next dining table over who you can converse with about almost any topic, from world political affairs, to eclipses, to Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, and so many others. It’s a real blessing to have the colleagues with whom I share this campus.”
– Abbie Chang ’19
Dr. Anna Cruz
Dr. Anna Cruz, a Spanish and Arabic teacher who joined the Choate community this fall, said that “the opportunity to teach very bright, interesting, and interested students” is what brought her here to Wallingford. She also marveled at the diversity of students on campus and the beautiful architecture Choate boasts.
Dr. Cruz came to Choate following a fellowship at Tufts University, where she was working on turning her dissertation into a book manuscript. Before that, Dr. Cruz was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College and earned her Master’s and PhD at University of California at Berkeley. She has wanted to be a teacher ever since she was a young child, and her wonderful teachers throughout college played a significant role in her decision to pursue teaching.
At Choate, Dr. Cruz is teaching all levels of Arabic, as well as Arabic Literature and Translation. Additionally, she teaches second year Spanish. Language is her department of choice because she savors the opportunity to introduce students to foreign languages and engage with them in a multitude of ways. She appreciates the opportunity to speak to students around campus in the language they’re learning, too. whether it be on the sidewalk, the dining hall, or elsewhere.
During her time at Choate, Dr. Cruz hopes “to gain ways to be a better educator and mentor to students and be a resource inside and outside of the classroom.” She would also like to take students on a term abroad to Morocco.
Besides teaching, Dr. Cruz loves to bake. She used to participate in baking competitions, and she says her homemade cookies are quite delicious. Additionally, Dr. Cruz intends to learn how to ride a bike this year, so look out for her riding around campus.
– Hadley Rogers ’21
Ms. Victoria Pierotti
Having just earned her Master’s degree in education from Brown University with an undergraduate concentration in Literary Arts, Ms. Victoria Pierotti came to Choate for her first formal teaching job. She teaches two third-form English classes and advises in West Wing.
As a form of professional development, Ms. Pierotti meets with mentor Ms. Harriet Blanchard, English teacher and Director of the Teaching & Learning Center, about once a week. She hopes this will help prepare her as a teacher. “I really want to learn how to run a classroom smoothly so that it caters to all the needs of my students. It’s something that teachers that have been working here for thirty years told me they’re still working on,” Ms. Pierotti said. She works to make her classroom a safe space for students to share their ideas.
Out of all the new adjustments Ms. Pierotti has had to make teaching at a boarding school, one of the most difficult has been the all encompassing environment. “I’ve never really had to do something like that, and it definitely feels different eating with, teaching, and coaching all of the same students,” she explained.
Ms. Pierotti’s favorite writing is poetry, a form of literature she teaches in her classes. On her inspiration for teaching English, Ms. Pierotti said, “I had an amazing English teacher, and he made English applicable to everyday life.” She hopes that by the end of the year some of her students will foster the same love of the subject as she does.
– Anjali Mangla ’20
Mr. Joe Lampe
Mr. Joe Lampe, a new addition to Choate’s English Department, can be seen around the Humanities building, teaching two sections of sophomore and junior English. This Kent School alumnus had been teaching for the past nine years at Avon Old Farms, but he came to realize he was ready for a change of scenery. Having connections to Choate, he was delighted to find an opening.
Mr. Lampe knew about Choate through English teacher Mr. Andrew Arcand, as they were new faculty members at Avon Old Farms together. Additionally, Mr. Lampe has taught at Choate Summer Programs, which familiarized him with the campus, as well as the community.
Mr. Lampe is delighted to be able to continue two of his hobbies, rowing and film, at Choate. He was a film major at Wesleyan University, and he now keeps his film-related knowledge current with the campus’s state-of-the-art facilities. Lampe also coaches the boys’ novice crew team in the fall, a level of the sport not offered at Avon.
“One of the things that I noticed immediately is that it’s a very supportive work environment. But it’s also kind of competitive, in a positive way, in that people are really pushing themselves as teachers to try new things and to be better,” Mr. Lampe said. He suspects he’ll learn from both his students and fellow faculty members during his time at Choate and overall grow as an educator.
– Lizzie Quinn ’20
Ms. Amy Howland
After teaching at the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter School in Boston, MA for the past ten years, Ms. Amy Howland came to Choate ready for a new and challenging experience. She is working in the HPRSS department, teaching United States History and Women’s Studies. In the spring term, she will coach for the track and field team.
After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Ms. Howland went to Seattle, where she worked with homeless youth and was an office coordinator for a teen health clinic in the Renton High School in Renton, WA. Ms. Howland then traveled for a year in South America, where she was exposed to carpentry, construction work, and scuba diving. After traveling, Ms. Howland went to the University of Washington in Seattle to get her Master’s in teaching.
Upon receiving her Master’s, Ms. Howland moved to Boston to work for a public charter school. She explained, “I see teaching as a craft that I desire to get better and better at.” This led her to the idea of teaching at a boarding school in order to gain further experience as an educator.
Ms. Howland loves strength training, yoga, and cross-country skiing. She is interested in getting involved with Choate’s hiking club and fitness classes. Ms. Howland is also the Model UN adviser this year. “I am really interested in helping teens through such an important stage in their life,” she said. “That is the whole reason that I decided to become a teacher.”
Photos courtesy of Choate Directory.
