New Year, New Teachers for 2024-25

Steven Coberly, Upper School science teacher, has returned to Latin following a year-long sabbatical. (Mia Kotler)

Steven Coberly, Upper School science teacher

After a year-long sabbatical, Mr. Coberly is back. Mr. Coberly has been a member of the Science Department for 20 years. This year, he is teaching physics and two electives: Stellar Astronomy in the fall and Cosmology in the spring. Before Latin, he taught physics at a boarding school in New Jersey, and then attended law school at University of Michigan. After working for a judge and two different law firms, he began working at Latin to follow his true passion of teaching.“Teaching physics is super fun,” Mr. Coberly said. “I enjoy watching the kids figure things out, and I find [the students] very interesting.”

Upper School history teacher Jeremy Goodman. (Lyla Granich)

Jeremy Goodman, Upper School history and social studies teacher

Mr. Goodman is spending his first year at Latin teaching three ninth grade Global Studies classes along with two sophomore electives: Russian Revolutions and Middle East. “I want to get more acclimated to the school and adjust to the community,” Mr. Goodman said. He has already begun adapting to the school, and he said he appreciates the welcoming aspects of Latin, such as his friendly colleagues. “My colleagues have been great and super supportive,” he said. “I’ve been able to lean on them for a lot of questions about the community.” His interest in history began in high school and has stayed with him throughout his lifetime. “I had an amazing teacher freshman year who I was fortunate enough to have as a junior, and he sparked my interest in history, which I never had before,” Mr. Goodman said.

Upper School college counselor Devon Jones. (Devon Jones)

Devon Jones, Upper School college counselor

College Counselor Devon Jones enters her third year of counseling at Latin. Ms. Jones worked in admissions for 10 years before beginning at Latin. “I started off in admissions at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and then moved to New York so that I could work at Cornell University,” Ms. Jones said. While she enjoyed her work, she felt that as an admissions officer at Cornell, she lacked meaningful interactions with students. “I just really missed the relationship building that I was doing when I was at Old Dominion and wanted to maintain that tie to admissions,” she said. After taking a six-month leave from Latin in 2023, she hopes to get reacclimated to the community. “When I was here before, I was able to do a lot of things like go to the plays, go to sports games, and I was an advisor for the [Black Student Union]. Now that I’m back, I am getting more involved advising BSU again, planning P-Week, and once this busy time of the year [passes], I will hopefully be able to do some of the stuff that I used to do and [enjoy] like [going] to plays and sports games.”

Upper School performing arts teacher Frances Limoncelli (Lyla Granich)

Frances Limoncelli, Upper School theater teacher

Although this is her first year in the Performing Arts Department at Latin, Ms. Limoncelli has had a passion for theater since she was little. “I am the fourth out of five kids in my family who were all into performing,” Ms. Limoncelli said. “When I was 10, they were all in musicals, and I looked up to them as my heroes, and I wanted to be just like them.” Ms. Limoncelli’s siblings drove her to pursue the performing arts, as she took inspiration from their childhood performances. “Even though I was painfully shy, I started taking voice lessons and dance lessons because I was like, ‘By the time I get to high school, I want to do that,’” she said. For the school year, she hopes to “develop meaningful relationships, especially with students interested in theatre.”

Upper School visual arts teacher Ian Merritt. (Lyla Granich)

Ian Merritt, Upper School photography teacher

Latin’s new photography teacher Mr. Merritt looks forward to connecting with students interested in art and sharing his long-lived passion for photography. “When I was a kid, my dad used to take photos all the time. When I was 8 years old I got to be able to use a camera and still use film back before digital. For me, I got really excited about documenting what was around me, either my family or the places we went,” Mr. Merritt said. His early experience with photography ignited his interest. “It started out as something fun to do and a hobby, and then it became more and more serious as I got older. I kept taking classes in high school, and classes in college,” he said. As he continued to focus on photography, he landed a job as someone to travel the world and take photos of cars. “It was very cool, but I would much rather teach,” Mr. Merritt said. He aims to find his ideal teaching style at Latin. “I want to find my groove as a teacher, and take what I think is fun and cool about photography, and apply that to students here.”

Eighth and ninth grade counselor Clara Wade. (Lyla Granich)

Clara Wade, eighth and ninth grade counselor

New eighth and ninth grade counselor Ms. Wade is looking forward to getting to know the Latin community. After attending the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago to receive her B.A. and A.M., respectively, in Social Work, Ms. Wade transitioned to counseling—she now has almost a decade of experience to boot. Ms. Wade is excited to continue her career in counseling while exploring all Latin has to offer. “I want to connect and meet with all of the students on my caseload—so all the eighth graders and all the ninth graders—and really become part of the community,” Ms. Wade said.

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