TEACHER SPOTLIGHT
NOT A STAND BEHIND THE PODIUM KIND OF TEACHER
By JP Feighery’ 03
“ But did he give you the book?!” Teresa DiVita-Geremia asked Patty Simeone over the phone after Patty’ s five interviews at the Prep. She left that day unsure if any of the interviews had gone her way, particularly the last one with outgoing Prep President Father Edward Maloney, SJ. But her friend cut right to the chase with her question, and Patty looked over at the book on Jesuit education sitting on her kitchen table.“ He did,” she said. Excited, Teresa’ s reply came back:“ That’ s it, you’ re hired!”
Sure enough, the next day Dr. Trish Morris called and offered Patty a job in the Prep’ s Modern Languages Department.
Now having completed her 25th year, Mrs.“ Sim” to any Prep student who knows her, has gotten calls over the years from public schools looking for Italian language teachers, but she’ s never even sat for an interview. This has surprised many public school teachers she has spoken to, but as anyone who enters her classroom can tell, Mrs. Simeone is content, comfortable, and considers her job at the Prep a vocation. She loves the service aspects incorporated into student life, finds cura personalis to be fundamental to the mission of teaching, and has sent her own two sons to the Prep( Classes of 2012 and 2015), knowing they too would experience all the things she loves about Rose Hill for themselves.
And she does love Fordham Prep and loves her Rams, past and present. She doesn’ t mind if it seems sappy because it’ s true. Every student who knows her, knows that too. Alumni often ask about her; she says the secret to being such a student favorite is simple:“ I like them, and they know that, and it’ s sincere.” She respects her students for who they are and knows her students are smart enough to know when a teacher loves what they do.
Her room is a testament to her students’ love for her. Decorated with memorabilia, hummels, signs, posters, and an Italian National Team jersey, with dates on the bottom, the back, or in the corner stretching back over her 25 years here. They are from her students, a few of them now colleagues, like Science Department Chair Dr. Anthony DiFato’ 99 and school principal, Dr. Joseph Petriello’ 98. Her room is Fordham Prep as much as any place. It’ s a sense of place and what makes it a second home to many alumni. Students who might otherwise scribble their name on a desk or leave their mark on a wall instead choose to leave Mrs. Simeone a gift; something of themselves behind in the little room in the back of the second floor where their time at Fordham was so well spent.
Part of Mrs.“ Sim’ s” respect for students means being their advocate. She has been chairing the Student Life Committee for 20 years now, interacting with students outside of the classroom and in that way, she helps the entire student body. They can go to her and know their concerns will be brought to the school administration’ s attention. Student Life tackles everything major or minor; at its core, it is a group of faculty and administrators attempting to take the pulse of the students. Patty quickly realized that having students on the committee was essential to its success. Student leaders are picked by the faculty to join the committee, which has become a student-led advocacy group with the committee’ s co-chair seat always filled by a student. Simeone loves that the students know and feel they have a voice, a spirit encouraged by Dr. Petriello, who goes to the committee for input on certain student-life decisions, most recently feedback on the new schedule.
Proud of her participation in Student Life, she sees the committee’ s current status as a student-driven organization the school’ s administration takes seriously and works with to make student life at Fordham Prep better is maybe the biggest accomplishment of her time at the Prep.
While it is important to her that her students learn the Italian language, the country, and pick up some sense of worldliness that comes with learning about other cultures, it’ s more than that. As she tells her son Alex’ 12, who is currently getting his Masters degree in education, being a teacher means helping students become good people, helping them learn to treat each other well. If they take something other than the language from her class, she hopes her students leave room 221 with pride in their background and the things that make them who they are.
SUMMER 2021 13