This year, Kingswood Oxford’s science department has a fresh face on its side, science teacher Angelina Massoia, whose positive impact on the community of KO and its students is already taking hold.
Ms. Massoia grew up in Agawam, Mass., and attended high school there. As a kid, she enjoyed history and math, but most of all she enjoyed science, specifically biology, and her heart was set on being a teacher. While she had considered Public Health at one point, Ms. Massoia says that “the ability to be in a classroom and be around so much energy in a school all day was much more interesting of an environment to work in for me rather than be subject matter itself.”
After graduating high school, Ms. Massoia attended Wesleyan University, a liberal arts school in Middletown, Connecticut. Here, she took the unique opportunity to major in Science and Society, which gives students the choice of one natural science and one social science to concentrate on, and she chose biology and sociology. Ms. Massoia then attended graduate school at Clemson University in South Carolina and the University of Pennsylvania.
After completing grad school, she taught history at a boarding school near Boston and then went on to teach at Hopkins School in New Haven for nine years.
Despite enjoying her time at Hopkins, she applied to teach at KO because she wanted to be closer to family. After teaching on Hopkins’ large campus, KO was a big change. “I find it so nice to be able to walk between buildings and not leave the building,” Ms. Massoia says. “The gym is basically connected to my classroom.”
This year, Ms. Massoia is teaching one section of biology and three sections of environmental science. One of her favorite topics to teach is genetics because it often invites students to be curious about how their own traits came to be – and she loves how Punnet squares fall into place.
When reflecting on what she enjoys most about teaching, it is the fact that her students aren’t the only ones learning new things. “I really love when students ask questions that are beyond what I plan to talk about that day,” Ms. Massoia said. “Sometimes I know the answer, and sometimes I have no idea, so finding out with a student is really cool.”
Outside of the classroom, you can often find Ms. Massoia watching Sunday night football – and watching her husband go crazy over the Bills – catching up with friends, spending time with family, or hiking. One day, she wants to do the Tour Du Mont Blanc, a multi-day backpacking route that takes hikers through parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy.
“One of my goals,” Ms. Massoia says, “is just to ride the wave with those challenges and keep a positive attitude when something comes up that I wasn’t expecting or wasn’t prepared for since I haven’t been here before.”
If she had to share one thing with the world, Ms. Massoia would remind people to be less harsh on themselves. “You’re your own worst critic,” she says, “and nobody else is paying as much attention as you are.”
