Staff Spotlight: Mr. Stewart

By Abigail Sullivan

Mr. Stewart graduated from Providence College this past year, and majored in History and Secondary Education. We were able to discuss his career, and him growing up as a country boy (wait, what?). Read this article to find out more!

What made you pursue a career in education?

Despite history being my chosen field, I actually discovered I wanted to teach because of my Calculus teacher my senior year of high school.  It wasn’t because she was an amazing, outstanding teacher in anyway; she was quite the opposite.  Each week we had lengthy assignments called hand-ins we had to do, but no one was able to complete the assignments on their own.  So along with my friends Sean and Chuck, I would work on the hand-ins.  We would each teach the others the content we understood and learn what we didn’t from the others.

What are some hobbies you have?

I really like traveling, and exploring the areas where I live. Whenever I have some free time I get on the T and head to a neighborhood I haven’t been to yet, or very much, and just walk around and see what there is do.  I think that’s the best way to really get to know the place you live. I also really love movies.  If enough good movies are on, I am likely to not move from the couch for several hours.

Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in beautiful Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which most people know as “Amish Country.”  It was a great place to grow up.  Lancaster has a great mix of urban and country settings so despite the common notion, I don’t consider myself a country boy.  But if Lancaster City didn’t feel quite big enough, Philadelphia and Baltimore are a little more than an hour away, and then New York City and Washington, D.C. are a bit over 2 hours away.  

Besides being a teacher, what other jobs have you had?

I’ve had a slightly strange collection of jobs before entering the education field.  In high school I worked as what I refer to as a pool bouncer.  It was my job to ensure that everyone at the pool was in fact a member or with someone who was.  I’ve also worked as a short order cook at a country club in Lancaster.  Lastly, I worked for Providence College my final summer of college.  I went around with a handful of other students and set up all the furniture in the dorm rooms for the fall semester.