Profiles of Fordham Graduate Alumni Who Teach at Private High Schools

Cristina earned her PhD in English in 2012. Before that, she completed an MA in English (Creative Writing concentration) at Fordham in 2007 and a BA in English (Creative Writing concentration) at Sacred Heart University in 2004.

Her dissertation, “Aura, Ambivalence, and Allure: The Portuguese in Modern American Literary Spaces,” argues that modern American understandings of national identity and self emerged in relation to changing depictions of the Portuguese. It focuses on the work of authors including Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Edith Wharton, T.S. Eliot, Charles Olson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Elizabeth Bishop.

Cristina is currently in her fourth year as an Upper School Instructor in the Department of English at the Convent of the Sacred Heart School in Greenwich, CT. Her responsibilities in that role include:

• Teaching American Literature to most of the Junior class
• Moderator of student literature and arts magazine, Perspectives
• Advisor to small group of students (~11)
• Faculty meetings
• Professional development seminars and activities
• Coordinating events with other schools (i.e. Writers Festival)
• Mentor to new faculty (including, most recently, another Fordham PhD, Alison Alberts!)
• NEASC accreditation team

Cristina describes her experiences teaching high school as demanding but rewarding. The demands include the daily responsibility to look out for students and participate in their growth in the form of meetings with parents, mentoring students individually, working on college application essays, and writing recommendation letters for college applications, summer programs, volunteer programs, and scholarships. The rewards include personal affirmation from students and fellow faculty as well as significant growth as a scholar (broader and deeper sense of the field and the opportunity to continue specialized study) and growth as an instructor. As she puts it, “teaching high school keeps the mind sharp and the material fresh because you have so many more opportunities to experiment with teaching.”

In addition to the in-depth knowledge of literature that she gained from her graduate work at Fordham, Cristina also cites as invaluable the pedagogy instruction she received in the PhD program’s Teaching Practicum.

Here is Cristina’s advice to graduate students thinking about high school teaching: “If a high school opportunity is open to you, why not apply and see what happens?  Graduate students worried about their futures or not wanting to lose momentum with their field of interest—or who are committed to being better teachers—ought to apply to a high school, visit, talk to the faculty, and get a feel for the environment to see if it is right for them. A job like this won’t be right for everyone—but you will never know unless you give it a chance.”

Learn more about Cristina’s move from graduate study to high school teaching.