This semester, freshman English teacher Mrs. Severino hosted a student teacher in her classroom: Miss Henry-Ellis! In her free time, Miss Henry-Ellis enjoys going on long runs and reading just about any genre. While she grew up about thirty minutes away from New York City, she came to Philadelphia to attend Holy Family University. “Honestly, Holy Family wasn’t my initial choice, ” she says, “but I received a good track scholarship. This was also my first time coming to Philadelphia. I had never pictured myself doing anything there.”

At Holy Family, Miss Henry-Ellis is a secondary education major. When I asked what made her decide to be a teacher, she responded, “Ever since I was about three years old, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. At the time though, I wasn’t quite sure what kind of teacher.” Later in life, she realized that she definitely wanted to be a high school teacher. She stated, “High school is the point in life where people start to feel out of place. I wanted to help students belong and help them feel like they can open up to me.” Eventually, Miss Henry-Ellis realized that English was the field she wished to teach, initially because she discovered she was good at it. “English is also a class which can be taught as boring,” she added, “so I wanted to try new learning techniques in the classroom to make the subject more engaging.”

Since Miss Henry-Ellis will leave Nazareth very soon, I asked her what her favorite memory here at Nazareth was. She thought for a moment and said, “That’s a hard question, but a moment that really stuck out to me was my first day teaching a class here. I didn’t really know if I had done a good job, but a student came up to me and had a heartfelt conversation. She really opened up and made herself vulnerable, which is hard especially for teenage girls. It made me think that I was doing exactly what I wanted to do: help students feel wanted and have a sense of belonging.”

She also wished to extend a thank you to the Nazareth community. “I am very grateful for the welcoming, family environment and acceptance I received. I am especially grateful to Mrs. Severino for being an excellent mentor. She doesn’t hold back; she lets me know that teaching will be difficult but with time, I will get the hang of it.”

I know I can speak for every freshman taking English this semester by saying we have greatly enjoyed having Miss Henry-Ellis with us this year. We will miss her, and we wish her good luck and success in her future as a teacher!