Features

Sarah Berg & Sanaa Scott

Staff Writers

SLA’s school psychologist, Dr. Wendy Galson, may be hidden away in a small office in the health suite, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t doing big things for the school, utilizing her extensive experience in the psychology field.

“I’ve worked in a lot of different schools, I’ve been in the district for 12 years,” Dr. Galson stated.  “I was a therapist for 25 years before I switched over to working in schools. I just felt like I wanted to reach more people and have more impact than I did just in my office.”

Dr. Galson’s office is located on the second floor, across from the nurse, she is here on Thursdays and Fridays.

Busy Schedule

A lot of students may not even know SLA has a psychologist. This is largely due to Dr. Galson’s limited time here and heavy workload.

Dr. Galson works in all three SLA schools, plus the Workshop School in West Philly. Because of this, she can only work with students briefly.

“I am really good for when somebody needs a few tools to help them,” Dr. Galson said.

“A lot of people are very stressed out about a lot of things, and there are two things that I would usually do. One is, to take a deep breath and look around. That’s great stress management. The other is to ask the question, about any stressful situation; what can I control, and what can’t I control? The thing to focus on is one step at a time, addressing the things I can control.”

School Counselor Zoe Siswick is deeply appreciative of Dr. Galson’s presence at the school.

“If the world was perfect and richer,” chuckled Ms. Siswick, “we would love to have her here full time, it would give her more opportunity to help on the assessments with IEP and 504 plans. It would also give her time to do what she’s best at, which is working with students and being a psychologist,”

“Sometimes I have cases where I feel stuck. Rather than her giving advice, sometimes it’s helpful for a student to see a fresh face and have someone else that can work closely with them.”

History at SLA

Dr. Galson’s work here at SLA is not the only thing connecting her to the school. Her son Greg Windle, was in the first graduating class of the school.  

“I love this school. I’m one of the originals. I really like being here, I really like the educational world that’s used here.”

“The people who are here, at SLA, have actively chosen to come. In many schools, things are much more regimented,” Dr. Galson said. “There’s much less opportunity for people to connect with each other, you all have an hour for lunch; this is so rare in the district.”

Ms. Siswick feels that this double role is one of Dr. Galson’s strengths.

“The fact that she’s been an SLA parent means that she understands things at SLA can be a little different. She understands the type of care and support that our students are getting here, so when she is working with students and their families she gets what their needs might be and what needs are being already being met.”

Dr. Galson also has a past at Benjamin Franklin High School, where SLA will co-locate in 2019. “I worked at Ben Franklin for six years, and so this whole transition is very exciting to me because it’s kind of bringing the threads together.”

On whether or not she will be coming to Ben Franklin along with SLA, Galson simply stated, “There will be a psychologist if it’s me or not I don’t know.”

Giving Back to the SLA Community

Dr. Galson works largely along with the teachers and counselors, mostly assisting on IEPs.

English Teacher Larissa Pahomov has her own thoughts about the counseling at SLA.

“What I appreciate about the counselors and our school psychologist and other support services is that, when there’s something I don’t know how to deal with, that I can turn to them, and then they have a larger toolkit of things that they can do.”

Ms. Pahomov sees Dr. Galson’s role as integral to the school functioning.

“If a student with an IEP or some other situation needs an evaluation she will come to us and ask us questions or ask to fill out a form about the student. So the instance where I go, ‘Oh, I really think this student needs to see a psychologist’ is actually pretty rare. It’s usually that there’s someone who is already in that system and she’s coming to us,” Ms. Pahomov said.

“She’s very professional and also very kind, in the few times I’ve made a plan with her for a student it’s always like ‘what will help the student the most and interrupt their lives the least’, even when it’s a serious situation, she just wants to keep everybody calm and moving along.”

Dr. Galson has an equal level of respect for the staff at SLA.

“I like to think that I can help the teachers do their jobs here. Mostly I work with the teachers if they’re having a problem the teacher will come to me and discuss it. I am one of the few staff members in the school who can really talk to one student at a time. It’s a real privilege.”

Lauren Nicolella & Meymey Seng

Staff Writers 

After the departure of Morgan Bushnell, Science Leadership Academy had an open position for a new geometry and statistics teacher. Luckily, Nicole Gasser was able to fill her spot after being a temporary substitute teacher at The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA).

Big Transition

As this is Ms. Gasser’s first official full-time teaching job, the first few weeks at SLA have been very stressful. Throughout this transition, she spoke about a way that has been helping her out.

“I feel like I have a very supportive staff, supportive co-workers, and supportive principals which is awesome. Also my students, they’re great, just getting to know them is really fun.”

 

The advisory system is also new to her, and she is glad to be a co-advisee with College Counselor Karina Hirschfield. She considers advisory a useful tool, being able to connect to parents and be someone students can talk to. This is different from previous schools she has been to, where advisory acts more as a free period.

Although there is much to adapt to, Sophomore Jeremiah Butler believes that she is a great fit for the school. “I think Ms. Gasser will adjust to SLA just fine because she seems tech savvy and gets Canvas.”

Past Experiences

Ms. Gasser already had an SLA connection. During her undergraduate time at Temple University, she chose to do field work at SLA and The Franklin Institute, where she gained an interest for the project based model after observing Math Teacher Brad Latimer.

“It’s a really good community to be a part of, and I really wanted to work here,” Ms. Gasser stated. “It was my number one school.”

Before college, she went to Hazleton Area High School in Northeast Pennsylvania and lived around Scranton. Since starting at Temple, she has been living in Philly, and has an easy twenty-minute walking commute to SLA.

A moment that stuck out to her on her walk to SLA was losing her wallet on the third day of school, including her license, credit card, I.D., and keys, including keys to her classroom.  

“So that made an interesting first week!”

About Her

Something that Ms. Gasser loves is music, and especially Taylor Swift’s. She went to one of her concerts and really enjoyed it. Her favorite song is from the album 1989 is Wildest Dreams. Aside from pop, she also enjoys all genres of music.

“I’m a really huge Taylor Swift fan, I just love all her music. I went to her concert last year and it was the best day ever.”

Influences and Goals

Ms. Gasser reported that in high school she was the “quiet student” and not one to volunteer. Besides being quiet, she was very hardworking, and ever since she was little she knew that she wanted to work in education. Even though other career options have been brought up to her, something about teaching never left her mind.

“I used to play with my dolls. I had a doll classroom,” she explained.

Her students are her top priority, getting to know everyone and creating a comfortable learning space where no one should feel afraid to ask any questions.

“Ms. Gasser is a soft-spoken teacher who still gets what she’s teaching across, despite that,” Butler said. “For me, her class is organized in a way that I think can help everybody because everything has its order which makes things easier.”

One of Ms. Gasser’s main goals is to allow students to gain knowledge from her class, and have it be more than just the content she is giving them in geometry and statistics. Her ways of teaching has been successful, where students are already feeling comfortable.

“She’s super sweet, understanding, and helpful. She has everything together,” said Senior Mekhi Granby. “Thanks Ms. Gasser for being a great teacher!”

Mekhi Granby & Lauryn Lewis 

Staff Writers

Spanish Teacher Asha Francisco, one of the several new additions to Science Leadership Academy’s staff this year, joins the school to replace Melanie Manuel, who taught Spanish for nine years at SLA.

Shaping Greatness

Ms. Francisco’s early life/background is an interesting one as she comes from a household in Hawaii with a father from the Philippines, a mother from Brazil, a brother four years younger than her. She noted that Hawaii was pretty diverse and how she became to master the English language from learning it at school and coming home to teach her parents, things such as grammar and pronunciation.

Ms. Francisco remembers speaking Portuguese with her mother at home and leaving her classmates curious and wondering what she was saying when they spoke it at her school.

“In high school, I was an ultimate nerd, I was one of those kids who got straight A’s, I took like 5 AP classes and I was president of a community service book club,” said Ms. Francisco.  

“I wasn’t officially in student government but I helped with it because of my friends, I was really involved in planning for prom and other senior events. I was also in Nation Honors Society and Captain of the tennis team. I really needed to get into college!”

Exploration

No stranger to traveling, Ms. Francisco started her travels early.  Before studying abroad, she left Hawaii to attend Oregon State University, and from there she took frequent trips with friends to Washington and California.

“I’ve been to Brazil multiple times because my mom is Brazilian, my dad is from the Philippines and we have traveled there as a family,” said Ms. Francisco.

She has also visited Portugal, England, Hungary, Turkey and other countries as well.  For her, travel is also about much more than just sightseeing.

“My number one thing is to live in the country of the language that you’re studying. As a Spanish major, I studied abroad my junior year in college. I went to Oregon State and we had trimesters, so I did my study abroad for 3 months in Santander, Spain. My senior year of college I went back to Oregon. After I graduated, I went to grad school in Spain. I knew I had to come back and understand not only language but culture and different expressions that you don’t really learn in school because you’re just on the basics. I went to la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares and did a one-year intensive masters program. To pay for school, I worked as a native English assistant in an elementary school. After the master’s program was done, I decided to stay another year, so I continued to be a native English assistant, but this time in a high school.”

“Living in Spain trying to find an apartment, opening a bank account, dealing with bills, all in Spanish with people who don’t speak any English. This experience really enhanced my learning as well as being in the country I could see which career opportunities I could take,” said Ms. Francisco.

Current Life

Ms. Francisco is now a Philadelphia resident as of last summer. She lives in Northern Liberties and utilizes public transportation to get around. From a small island to a major city, Ms. Francisco admitted that she has some adapting to do.

“East Coast life is very different and it was a little shocking at first, in Hawaii, everyone is very… when you walk by somebody they’ll say hi.  It’s like a family you know, really small. Here, it’s fast-paced, not everyone says hello to you when you walk by and I’m starting to get used to that. I don’t know, it’s just very different.”

Dealing with Distance

What was the most challenging experience of her life?

“The move from Hawaii to Spain, I was alone. I had to find a temporary place to stay, I had to find an apartment, get a roommate, it was really stressful. In the winter it was really cold and in the summer it was really really hot, Hawaii is in the middle, it never gets extreme in either season,” Ms. Francisco said.

So I had to get used to that, it was different. It was really difficult to have to go through all of that by myself with zero help.”

As for her professional life…

“The challenge is definitely the varying skill levels, I teach majority Spanish 2 and everyone is at very different skill levels. Some students are taking Spanish 1 here, some have taken it in different schools, and some have been familiar with Spanish all their lives. Trying to find a balance of making sure that the ones who’ve studied it forever are still being challenged while not going too fast for the people who haven’t studied it forever has been a little bit of a struggle,” said Ms. Francisco when asked about the challenges of SLA.

 

Qualities & Advice

Ms. Francisco hasn’t been teaching at SLA for very long as the school year just started, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t made an impact.

“She’s very persistent, she makes sure the kids understand what she’s teaching. She doesn’t  move on until the kids understand what she’s teaching,” said Senior Mekhi Friend, who’s a student assistant teacher for Ms. Francisco.  

Friend also had some advice for her students.

“Don’t chew gum in her class, come to class on time, and pay attention. She has an issue with students who tend to do the opposite of these actions,” he said.

“She is very creative, very personable and has a bright personality. She’s really creative and seems like a fun teacher,” said fellow Spanish Teacher Joselyn Hernandez.

“I think I’ve shared a lot with her already but one thing I would like to say to her is to take one day at a time, because each day is different.”

A Great Person

When asked to describe herself in one word, Ms. Francisco’s choice was caring.

“Once you’re under my wing as a student or a friend, I’ll feel very protective of you,” she said.

“If someone says anything or you don’t feel very well I’d like to make sure that you’re okay and that you feel better and that applies to a wide range of people.”