ALEXANDRA ROSENBOOM

Deciding to fight it out all the way up to a week before her delivery date, Upper School teacher since 2002, Alexandra Rosenboom will leave for maternity leave on March 27 only a week before her expected delivery date of her baby girl on April 7.

Rosenboom, who is already in her 35th week of pregnancy, plans to stay in school up until the end of her prenatal period. She already has a twenty-two and a half month old boy and is excited for her new delivery as an addition to her family.

“Another boy would be great too, but we are really excited to have a daughter,” she said.

Being an English teacher and a poet, Rosenboom is interested in symbolism and unique language with names and has incorporated that into the name that she wishes to keep a secret for her new baby girl.

“It is probably not a name you have heard before or in a while,” she said.

Although Rosenboom says she will miss a lot while she is gone, she will miss most the opportunity of sharing ideas with students who are so excited, intelligent and inspiring when talking about literature as well as the fun collaboration with her colleagues.

Rosenboom currently teaches two sections of Honors British Literature, one section of British Literature and one section of Theory and Practice of Poetry and Fiction, all of which will be taught by Heyes. He will also take over her advisory from the Class of 2016.

Heyes, now a long-term substitute for the Upper School, previously served as the English Department Head and taught both English I regular and honors as well as English 4 electives like Literature of the Holocaust, Great Novels and Justice and Literature.

Heyes is especially excited about Rosenboom’s Theory and Practice of Poetry and Fiction. He expresses his thoughts on the class and what he hopes to see.

“One of the things that I am excited about is that students share their work with their peers,” he said. “I am looking forward to that energy.”

RAY FOWLER

After explaining America’s stance in universally historical moments and marking plays for both the football and softball teams for eight years, Upper School teacher and coach, Ray Fowler decides to take on a new turn on life and will be leaving Harker.

Alongside his liberal arts experience from both the University of San Diego and the College of Notre Dame, Fowler’s past careers have always allowed him to bring new and unique perspectives into the classroom.

“I am the only former Navy pilot to teach at Harker, and I am the only former police officer to teach at Harker,” he said.

After all the different experiences and moments that Fowler has had, teaching here at Harker has allowed him to play a small role in the lives of students as they prepare for college and beyond, which to him is the most gratifying.

After teaching for eight years at Harker, once of his most memorable moments occurred in the beginning of this school year. Fowler usually begins his classes with a small discussion on the significance of community service and helping others – one of the days he described “Project Smile”, an organization responsible for funding cleft palate surgeries for children living in poverty overseas Later, his period two class surprised him with a check to pay for two of these surgeries.

“They didn’t do it to record community service hours or for any special recognition,” Fowler said. “They did it because they wanted to help change, maybe even save, a child’s life. That’s huge. I am so proud of them.”

Fowler plans to explore other opportunities as an educator. But before that, he plans to hop on his motorcycle that has taken him from San Francisco to the Chesapeake, from the Mexican border to Canada, and thousands of other miles somewhere cross-country again. “Maybe I’ll just toss a dart on the map and go,” he said.

EMILY MANIGO

Emily Manigo, who has been the security and traffic officer at the Upper School since July 2004, plans to retire from her position. She will be fondly remembered by her fellow faculty members.

“What I love most is her smile,” said Manigo’s friend and Upper School receptionist Luanne Stanley. “She’s always smiling and laughing and making everyone feel welcomed.”

“I really love the traffic and talking to students, because I do communicate with students [and] parents. I’m a people person, I love talking with people,” Manigo said last October.

MARY MORTLOCK

AP Statistics teacher Mary Mortlock, who began teaching in the Upper School in 2007, plans to retire at the end of the school year. During her retirement, she would like to visit her grandchildren who live in San Diego as well as her own kids who live on both coasts of the country.

However, Mortlock still plans to be connected to the Harker school by substituting. Before coming to Harker, the teacher had prior teaching experience.

“I had been teaching for 28 years before I came to Harker, in England, on the East Coast of America and at Cal Poly so I was fairly practiced at teaching before Harker.  However, I found that the friendliness of the faculty and students to be very high at Harker.”

Some of Mortlock’s favorite memories at Harker included spending quality time with students and being able to bond with them.

She has others as well, but the AP Statistics teacher told us that there were “too many to mention”.

When she leaves Harker, Mortlock says that she would miss everybody at Harker including faculty and students. After retiring, Mortlock would want her current students to leave her class with larger knowledge of Statistics and always remember the “fond memories of the class; stories (all educational, of course), eating candy and having a good time”

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 13, 2015.