Pictured above is M.C. Post, a Teaching Fellow in the History and Social Science Department.
With the arrival of the 2023-2024 school year, 33 new faculty members have joined the Andover community. According to Dean of Faculty Jeff Domina, this figure is higher than that of pre-pandemic years, but has remained steady over the past two school years, which saw 35 and 34 new members respectively.
This year’s new faculty members comprise 17 continuing faculty positions, four Deans and Directors, eight Teaching Fellows, three adjuncts, and one new Writer in Residence. Domina identified the Covid-19 pandemic as the major cause behind the increase in the number of new faculty members.
“There was a lot of turnover with Covid-19. During the pandemic, with the racial reckoning, [and in that] political atmosphere…a lot of people found teaching to be more difficult, more tiring, and not only [at] Andover but [also] at other schools. For all kinds of reasons and in all different kinds of work, people rethought what they were doing, why they were doing it, and where they were doing it. So, just as in other schools, we [had] more turnover with faculty… This churn among schools is challenging because we want continuity, and we want to keep developing our teachers, but it feels a bit like we’re over the hump now,” said Domina.
However, considering the natural fluctuations in the faculty at Andover, Domina explained that some of this turnover was to be expected, specifically citing Teaching Fellows and the Writer in Residence as two positions designed to have high turnover.
“Even before Covid[-19], there were some years that were this high for various reasons… [33] is a high number, but Andover is huge. We have 230 something faculty, and some of the positions are intentionally built to turn over. We had four retirements last year, so there are all these things that naturally happen. In addition to Teaching Fellow positions that were ending, we had a few positions that were short-term appointments, like one-year faculty [positions] that we had used to cover the program during Covid[-19] which were ending in the same way that a Teaching Fellowship ends,” said Domina.
M.C. Post, a Teaching Fellow in History and Social Science, joined the Andover faculty this year. They spoke on their enthusiasm for the mentorship program offered to teaching fellows at Andover.
“When I visited Andover, I was blown away by the students and their genuine desire to learn. I’m really excited to get to know my students this term and learn from them. I decided to teach here because of the mentorship program established between Teaching Fellows and [full-time] faculty. As a new teacher I know how lucky I am to learn from so many fantastic teachers around me — they have a lot of knowledge and wisdom,” wrote Post in an email to The Phillipian.
Madeline McIntire, a Teaching Fellow in Classics, was also drawn to the mentorship opportunity offered by the Teaching Fellowship. She also expressed her appreciation for the community of Teaching Fellows she discovered at Andover.
“When I found the teaching fellowship, the thing that appealed to me about it the most was the mentoring. I knew I wanted to teach, but I wanted to make sure I could do the best job that I personally could do, and I knew that having an experienced teacher would help me become a better instructor. I also liked that there would be a cohort of teaching fellows from different subjects who could share ideas and support each other through this year. This is my first time teaching [at the high school level], and I found everyone to be really friendly and kind,” said McIntire.
With the addition of new faculty members, Leon Calleja, Instructor and Chair in English, commented on the new faces across campus. He hopes that increased faculty interaction across departments will foster a greater sense of community overall.
“There’s a lot of new faces around, and I think that forces us as a faculty to break out of our silos a bit. Obviously, I know everybody in my department. But there are some faces that I’ll see in the faculty that I thought were new this year, but they actually came last year because maybe they work in the Biology department and maybe I rarely see them. So that’s something that, hopefully as [time] goes on and we continue to build community, will change,” said Calleja.
Highlighting the positive energy and experience brought in by new faculty members, Domina shared his excitement for the school year with the new faculty.
“A lot of the teachers [who] are coming in, even if they’re new to Andover, are very experienced teachers, which is always great because people who’ve been teaching at another school have a different perspective on things. They’ve worked with different curricula and schools. That helps us keep improving. [The new faculty are] excited to be here and great with kids, and it makes me all the more optimistic about the new school year,” said Domina.
