Kit Leckerling is the Dean of West Quad North (WQN) Cluster, Instructor in History and Social Sciences, an academic advisor, and an assistant coach for Varsity Football. In his free time, Leckerling enjoys biking and running, as well as tending to his own vegetable garden.
“I had a great experience at UNC. I majored in anthropology and ended up minoring in history. I didn’t play sports there, so it is sort of a surprise that I went there… I thought I would go to college in New England and play football. In fact, I was recruited to play football at a lower level in college. However, my college counselor came to me in my Senior fall and told me that they wanted to nominate me for a scholarship at UNC and asked me whether I was interested in going, and I agreed… What I really enjoyed was that since UNC is a large research university — there are graduate programs in every single department. Once I took some of the undergraduate courses, in the last two years, I was able to take graduate-level courses in history and anthropology, which I was interested in. Another great part of it was that since it was a large school, it never felt too small. It gets smaller for the communities you are a part of or activities that you are engaged in, but it never got too small to run out of opportunities.”
“My primary role was still a history teacher and a House Counselor, but there was a need for someone to run the forestry program, a semester program for eleventh-graders who come from all over the country from schools like Andover, etc. They would come for a semester and do their regular courses, but instead of having sports and arts as their extracurricular commitments, they would do farming. We taught them how to grow vegetables, raise animals, cut firewood, make maple syrup, and so on. The idea was that we would have a school that is sustainable, self-sufficient, and ecologically sound. Although I had no prior experience, I had an interest in forests and forestry before that. I was not a trained forester by any stretch of the imagination, but there was a need there; I brought a growth mindset to it, and it turned out to be fantastic.”
“It was certainly the teaching fellow program. It was an amazing way to start a teaching career, with such amazing students and colleagues to work within such a supportive institution. Having gone to Choate and knowing what it is like to learn and live in an intentionally diverse community that is committed to scholarship, excellence, sports, theater, and arts was a big reason why I wanted to come here.”
“For me, it was specifically my interest in the Cluster Dean role. I had a sense that the pandemic was a real challenge here. It really profoundly impacted how community building happens at Andover. It was appealing to me to come here at a time when there was an opportunity for real impact in terms of getting back to some of the community building that was interrupted by the pandemic. Hearing about the new student conduct system and philosophies behind it, centering student growth and learning and trying to get away from discipline and the punitive nature of how the older systems existed in boarding systems was particularly appealing to me.”
“I would say that the role of Dean has changed over the course of two-plus years in that I have so much more of an idea of what it means to be a Cluster Dean. I had some ideas coming in, but obviously, any time you start a new job, especially one as intensive as being a Cluster Dean, you’re like ‘Oh, that’s what this job entails…’ I also teach history — I’m a member of the history department. Right now, I’m teaching History 300, which I love… That changed over time because history and our approaches to teaching history change all the time. That’s what makes history exciting. It’s not about a correct answer. It’s about how we see the world and how we see the past. And how we construct stories and narratives and understandings about the past, which is always changing. I love to engage with students in that process of discovery, empowering them to see themselves as historians and do their own interpretation of the little pieces of evidence, primary sources, and materials that give us windows into what it was like to live in other times and what it was like to be other people.”
“Yes, it definitely does. It affects it from a personal level. The fact that all four of us are working on the same general project, which is building a learning community here, and being a part of this incredible community, that definitely changes things. It’s not to say I’m more committed than someone whose spouse or kids don’t go here, that’s not necessarily true since we all have different ways of committing to the work that we do. I will say that we’re fully in it. I’m really grateful for the opportunity that our kids have to be able to go to school here, that they get to have our colleagues as their teachers. They’re fantastic people and educators, so it’s a wonderful connection and a level of community I don’t take for granted. It’s a different thing to be a faculty kid and a Cluster Dean kid. One thing I really appreciate is that I get to see them in action. I try to keep my distance and give them space, but I get to see and support them from the side. I get to know their friends and peers, which is pretty amazing.”
“I love to start the day by getting outside and going for a run, which is something I have done for many years. At the mountain school, it was easier, it was very rural, and I could just run out the backdoor. Moving here was more of a suburban environment. I knew I had to find that important connection to the place. Initially, it was the [Cochran Bird] Sanctuary, and then Ms. [Comfort] Halsey, [Instructor in Spanish], since she does [Outdoor Pursuits], introduced me to the Ward Reservation and Harold Parker State Park. Every morning I get up a little bit earlier just to ride my bike, I go past Snyder [Center] and over to the Ward Reservation. There’s a little loop in that state park that I like to run in the morning… I also try to remind myself every day that we are on Native land. The Indigenous people of this area are still here and will be here forever. It’s important to remind ourselves of that. It informs my teaching and the way I interact with other people.”
“What I love about my routine is that I get to interact with a lot of different people all through the day. Certainly, I would wake up earlier than everyone else. I would go over to Holt Hill and run in the woods over there. When I come back, Ms. Halsey is awake, so we have a moment to connect in the morning before the business of the day starts. I get to say goodbye to Rowan [Leckerling ’26] and Cedar [Leckerling ’28] as they rush off to breakfast or first period or whatever. I love the days when we have third period since I teach it, I love to see my students and being in that space together. I also love days when we meet as a Deans Team, because the Deans Team is such a great group of people. Such a great team where everybody is very supportive of each other and recognizes we are so much better together than as individuals.”
“That’s a hard one for me to answer. I love food. I especially love food that I know the origin of. I like to know the person or people who produced it. Sometimes it’s me and Ms. Halsey because we love to garden and grow food. Nutrient-dense foods that come from here that are produced with sustainable practices and with stewarding the land in mind are important. Being mindful of the experience of the people who are working to grow, transport, and do all the things to get the food to our plates.”
“I would say there is no one full Andover experience. Rather than having a fixed idea of what the Andover experience should be, students should be open and flexible to think about what that looks like for them. What’s important in terms of accomplishing that is really cultivating skills of mindfulness, thoughtfulness, and self-reflection to understand what that looks like for me. What is the right version of that for me? Latching onto something that is right for somebody else or imposing something on yourself is unproductive. It’s better to develop skills and practices around mindfulness, self-reflection, self-care, and connection to others.”
