New Faces at Leadership

Our school has welcomed two new teachers, a guidance counselor and a college counselor at the beginning of the school year. Those teachers and staff are Ms. Stigers, Mr. Losey, Ms. Rodriguez, and Ms. Kolsch. Let’s make them feel welcome and comfortable in our school.

First, Ms. Stigers teaches 9th and 10th grade English classes. Surprisingly, she is actually not new. She has come back after being on maternity leave with her son until kindergarten. She wanted to spend time being involved in  the first years of her son’s life. From when she was first at the school, she thought that the curriculum has gotten more rigorous with the introduction of more AP classes. In addition to the classes, she noticed how much smaller the school has become over the years. Nevertheless, she appreciates the changes and enjoys being at Leadership. Fun fact, Ms. Stigers became a teacher after herself dropping out of high school. After re-enrolling in high school, Ms. Stigers felt super comfortable because all the teachers encouraged and welcomed her back. As a result, she enjoys learning from a different perspective than others. She describes herself as a warm and welcoming person stating that,

Mr. Losey is our school’s new history teacher. He wanted to teach history at Leadership because he recently moved to New York with his family and our school presented an opportunity for easy commuting. Mr. Losey has actually taught at several schools outside of Manhattan and even outside the United States. He taught at schools in Philadelphia and Brooklyn and as far away as South Korea. One of the biggest differences between our school and Mr. Losey’s old school was the size difference. He saw that Leadership was much smaller than his old school. Despite this, he actually likes these differences. He finds it easier and better to get to know students and other staff in our school. Similarly to Ms. Stigers, Mr. Losey has found his passion to teach from his motivation to teach students how the world works. He describes himself as an enthusiastic and relaxed teacher, saying, “I love figuring out how the world works.

Ms. Kolsch is our new school guidance counselor and she’s new to Leadership. Like Mr. Losey, and Ms. Stigers, Ms. Kolsch could tell that our school’s size is much smaller than her old school; she likes how Leadership is smaller since she can get to know all the students quickly and easily. For this reason, she came to Leadership. Ms. Kolsch loves this school because everyone is chill.

Ms. Rodriguez is our school’s new college adviser. A couple ways Leadership differs from her old school are that she worked in one school online in Brooklyn, our school is much smaller, has more technical training in other schools, and more partnerships. Some reasons why she came to Leadership are that she was excited to work with our students and she was curious about the SUMMA program. Ever since she arrived at our school, she has enjoyed her experience here.