From Student to Teacher -Always a Passion for Learning
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From Student to Teacher -Always a Passion for Learning
By Krissy Mailman ' 04
For Greg Scontras ' 04 one of the most enduring memories he has of Thornton Academy is sitting in English class at Thornton Academy and being inspired by Mr . Queally ’ s love of learning . That inspiration never left him , and now in some ways , he tries to do the same as an assistant professor of linguistics .
“ Mr . Queally taught us that you can actively be doing something just by learning ,” he said .
Looking back , it ’ s safe to say that Greg has been active for more than 20 years in his quest for knowledge as a student of his craft : published author , sought after researcher , presenter , and most recently , as an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of California , Irvine .
“ Greg was single handedly one of the best students I ’ ve ever taught ,” said Christopher Queally , who taught Greg ’ s Advanced Placement English course . “ He was always eager to learn . He absorbed everything like a sponge and hung on every word I said .”
In fact , words are Greg ’ s passion and livelihood . As an assistant professor , Greg teaches as well as conducts research for the Department of Linguistics . Linguistics , in its simplest form , is the scientific study of language . Greg ’ s focus is on how we use language to compose and communicate meaning , what our abstract linguistic representations are , and the compositional mechanism that manipulates them . His work investigates these representations as a means to further understand language and the psychological systems that shape it .
“ I study how our brain uses language . We cannot open people ’ s skulls and see their minds . We have to interpret what they mean through language ,” Greg said . “ If you can understand someone ’ s language , you can better understand that person . If you can make a model of language , you can understand it better .”
Greg ’ s interest in language started in the foreign language department at Thornton Academy . Greg studied four years of Spanish , two years of Greek , and two years of Russian . He also took many other courses in the humanities .
“ The number of foreign language courses that TA offered was really helpful . I ’ m a big fan of a liberal arts education . There is no better time to attain that than in high school . A well-rounded education makes for good citizens . You can also learn more about yourself and what your goals are ,” he said .
Greg ’ s goals became clear when he started his undergraduate education at Boston University in 2004 . “ There were more than 20,000 students at BU . The student body population was larger than the city of Saco , where I grew up ,” Greg said . “ As a freshman you had to declare a major right away . I was a little hesitant at first , but once I started taking courses in linguistics , I fell in love . I knew early on I wanted to do research and eventually teach in the field of linguistics .”
In 2008 , Greg graduated with distinction , from Boston University with a B . A . in both linguistics and philosophy . He knew he had to pursue a doctoral degree in order to teach , and he applied to Harvard . Within months , he was accepted into the Ph . D . Program in the Department of Linguistics .
“ I feel very fortunate to have been accepted into Harvard ’ s program . Boston was very appealing to me as you have so many universities close