Three new teaching fellows have joined the Williston faculty.
In this current 2024-2025 school year, a total of twelve new faculty members have joined Williston, including three teacher fellows—Taylor Russ, Sarah Sullivan and Veronika Bedard.
Russ is a recent graduate of Yale university with a Bachelor’s in history of science, medicine and public health. She has a background in mentoring and tutoring her peers within the New Haven area, and developed and taught a course for the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation on the history of vaccines.
Sullivan, a proud 2019 Williston alum, has a Bachelor’s from Framingham State University in psychology and a minor in criminology. She most recently served as an assistant coach to the Williston Girls Varsity basketball team, and additionally has a background as a teacher, tutor, and paraprofessional within Berkshire Hills Regional School District and Wellesley Community Children’s Center.
Berdard has a Bachelor’s in political science and anthropology from the University of Connecticut, and a Master’s in political science from Villanova University. She taught Latin American History at Suffield Academy for a semester, and has also worked as a research assistant at Villanova University, contributing to Digest of Middle East Studies and yet-to-be-published research on British law and politics.
The Williston fellowship program entails teaching two classes, leading an afternoon activity every trimester, and dorm duty. The program is meant to ease new faculty into a teaching lifestyle without causing too much stress at once.
“I’ve had experience teaching before, but never in a way that is as structured as an actual school,” Russ explained. “I taught at summer schools, helped at other places as an assistant teacher, but I was never a full blown teacher myself. This program was a good introduction, because we don’t have as many responsibilities as a teacher, but we still have enough responsibilities to gain experience.”
Sullivan taught AP Psychology and Forensics in trimester one, currently teachers Child Development in trimester two, and will teach Behavioral Psychology and Child Development next trimester. Russ currently teaches Honors Biology and Chemistry. Bedard currently teaches 9th grade Humanities.
The fellowship program is not just about what happens inside of the classroom, but also how to to utilize time effectively outside of the classroom when not teaching.
“In my free time, I observe other classes being taught, prepare for my own classes, chat with students or offer them extra help,” Sullivan said.
Bedard likes the academic freedom that comes with a boarding school.
“I wanted to work in a boarding school because I got to determine the curriculum and get to know my students better,” Bedard said.
Standardized courses like AP can be rewarding, but don’t often allow for a lot of wiggle room when it comes to pacing or teaching material. Bedard hopes to teach an elective in the future, potentially on the Cold War, inspired by her Polish mother who has a background in Soviet studies.
She also notes that Williston is a very immersive environment.
“I really feel like I’m back in high school. In academia, one typically just focuses on themselves, but in high school, the focus is all on interpersonal relationships, so that was a change for me,” Bedard said.
Russ said she’s enjoyed figuring out how to create intellectually stimulating yet manageable material for students.
“One of my main obstacles was learning to differentiate what is challenging versus what is too much for a student, because my understanding of biochemistry is at a college level, and it can be hard to remember that I am teaching high school students,” Russ said.
Bedard enjoys exploring the ways that identity can intersect with teaching.
“One difficult part has been trying to navigate a position of power as a young woman, how to be taken seriously by young students, figuring out what kind of teacher I want to be, and trying to walk the line of having authority without being too overbearing,” Bedard said.
