By Juliet Bu ‘23 and Michael Pyo ‘22

Image Courtesy of The Minuteman

It’s Friday, September 17th. We hustle around the hallways, laptops in hand, trying to track down NA’s new Upper School faculty members (new Middle School faculty members soon to come!): Mr. Grossen (Math), Ms. Miao (Math), Mr. Duhaime (Humanities), Mr. He (Humanities), Ms. Sarmiento (Humanities), Ms. Monroe (English), Mr. Jurasek (English), and Ms. Serrano (Language). We have a long list of juicy questions for them, and time is of the essence! 

Once we’ve cornered our respective teachers, we ask them for some critical information.

Us: What would we find in your fridge right now? 

Ms. Monroe: Vegan food. I’m actually not a vegan but a mostly dairy-free pescatarian. You’d also find lentil celery root salad, vegan, gluten-free eggplant lasagna, lots of eggs, and ironically a lot of cheese. My daughters live on cheese. 

Ms. Sarmiento: Seltzer — a lot of seltzer, every combination of flavors. 

Mr. He: A variety of coffee and tea from everywhere. I’m a tea leaf and coffee bean collector. I love aesthetically decorated tea bags.

Ms. Miao: Apples! 

Ms. Serrano: Chicken soup! My kids love homemade chicken soup. Everything I eat is homemade, even bread! 

Mr. Jurasek: Homemade ravioli, cold brew, and apples.

Mr. Duhaime: Leftover pasta made by my wife. 

Clearly, we’ve got some foodies… so of course we had to ask them about the Dining Hall.

Us: what is your Favorite Sage Dining food so far?

Mr. Grossen: Buffalo Cauliflower. 

Ms. Sarmiento: Fries. 

Mr. He: Buffalo Cauliflower. 

Ms. Miao: Froyo! 

Ms. Serrano: Stuffed peppers with Quinoa. 

Mr. Jurasek: The pasta bar. Just pasta. 

Mr. Duhaime: The ribs and shellfish from the faculty and staff BBQ during meetings week. 

Buffalo Cauliflower is definitely our favorite too!

Let’s see how our new teachers are feeling about Newark Academy so far. 

Us: What was your first impression of NA?

Ms. Monroe: Warm, inviting and inclusive. 

Ms. Sarmiento: Very big. Everyone said it was a big square and that helped me find my way around. 

Mr. He: Super friendly. 

Ms. Miao: A beautiful campus, old school, and lots of class! 

Ms. Sarmiento: A push and strive for excellence.  

Mr. Jurasek: Red brick on the outside, white brick on the inside.

Mr. Duhaime: Everyone was incredibly nice and helpful. 

We agree, Ms. Sarmiento, Newark Academy is very big

Now for a fan-favorite question. 

Us: If you had to choose a faculty member to be stuck on a deserted island with, who would it be and why?

Mr. Grossen: Based purely on what I’ve found in the last 2 weeks, Dr. Jacobsen. He has consistently brought food almost everyday. If we were on a deserted island, chances are that he has food.

Ms. Monroe: I might pick Mitch Jurasek. He grew up in Alaska and would probably be very resourceful. 

Ms. Sarmiento: I’m not sure…

Mr. He: Mr. Coe. He is very funny and cracks me up. 

Ms. Miao: Dr. Jacobsen! He could bring his vegetables!

Ms. Serrano: My mentor, Mr. Dan Erlandson. He seems to know his way around, and I have no sense of direction. 

Mr. Jurasek: Ms. Mahoney, because everytime I have a problem she helps me solve it.  

Mr. Duhaime: I’m still meeting people, but probably Mr. Siddiqui in IT because he fixes everything. 

And finally, as high schoolers ourselves, we had to know what our new teachers were like when they were our age. 

Us: What were you like in high school? 

Ms. Monroe: I was a high-energy theater kid. In terms of friends, I was a floater and friendly with everybody.

Ms. Sarmiento: I was Editor of Yearbook, and I took every non-science AP class offered at my school. I like to think that I was cool, but that was probably not true. 

Mr. He: I liked English and math at the time. I also loved political science and wanted to become a diplomat. 

Ms. Miao: I was hardworking but did not have to take the Chinese College Entrance Exam because I wanted to study in the US so I took the SAT.

Ms. Serrano: In highschool, I was very studious and an active member in the environmental club. My favorite class was electronics. I never would’ve never thought that I was going to be a teacher. I wanted to learn business. 

Mr. Jurasek: I was kind of a jock before I came out as queer. I ran Track and Cross Country, and I participated in Nordic skiing.

Mr. Duhaime: I was a hard worker. I was a part of the environmental club, student government, and philosophy club. I had long hair and played guitar.  

We loved getting to know each and every one of these teachers with our silly and wacky questions. Since we’ve gotten to know them, we invite you to start conversations with them about similarities you found in the interviews, or say hi to them in the hallways! We are so excited to welcome them into our NA community, and we hope you enjoyed the interview!