Interview by Samantha Schnell, City Year AmeriCorps Member serving on the Westfield Capital Management Team at the Neighborhood House Charter School
On a recent Thursday morning, I sat down with Steve O’Connell at the Neighborhood House Charter School (NHCS) to discuss teaching, City Year and working with youth. Steve is himself a City Year alum; he served for two years at the Agassiz Elementary School in Jamaica Plain, first as a corps member and then as a Team Leader. Steve decided to join City Year Boston because he was tired of living in the college bubble. “I wanted my time to matter,” he says. “I wanted to come back [to my hometown] and do something.”
Steve O’Connell, former corps member turned teacher at NHCS
Now, Steve is a first year teacher and ELA (English) specialist at NHCS. He teaches Non-Fiction Skill Building to sixth graders and provides academic support to 7th and 8th grade students on Individual Education Plans (IEPs). When he is not teaching, Steve enjoys reading and playing basketball; if you go to one of the school’s basketball games, you’ll see him up front, watching the game intently and keeping score.
How is being a teacher different from being a corps member, and how is it similar?
According to Steve, teachers and corps members build very different types of relationships with students, although both relationships are equally “necessary, effective, valuable and fun.” As a teacher, he told me, your relationship with the students is based mainly on your “ability to teach,” as well as your ability to Continue reading
