Josie Alston (V)
This fall, Pingry welcomed Mr. Kevin Schroedter to the Middle and Upper School Language Departments. Mr. Schroedter teaches French 2 in the Middle and Upper School, along with Spanish 2 and French 5 in the Upper School. He is the assistant coach for the high school water polo and swim teams.
Born in Bogota, Colombia, Mr. Schroedter grew up immersed in the Spanish language and continued to speak it throughout his childhood after he relocated to Miami. However, Mr. Schroedter fell in love with French, a language held in high esteem by his family, especially his grandfather, who served as a French professor for the Colombian military and as a military attaché in Paris.
Mr. Schroedter continued to pursue his passion at Duke University where he earned his B.A. in Political Science and French, and Middlebury College where he earned his M.A. in French.
Mr. Schroedter is no stranger to teaching, as this year marks his 28th year teaching French and Spanish at a day or boarding school. He has taught at a “long list” of schools all over the world, including London, Paris, Zermatt, California, Delaware, Texas, and North Carolina. He describes teaching as a way to “stay immersed in the French world and earn a living” while using professional development opportunities to “become a better teacher” and “connect with young people to make a difference.”
Although it has only been a few months, Mr. Schroedter really enjoys Pingry, describing it as a “convivial environment” where he can enjoy the support of his colleagues and get to know his students better. He acknowledges that Pingry can be a “high-pressure environment” at times; however, the school exudes an air of “humanity,” with enough “down moments in the day to form human connections, which makes it motivating and both physically and emotionally possible to invest so much in the academic part of things.”
Mr. Schroedter has experience working at similar schools and has set “finding [his] way, getting used to how things are done, adapting to expectations, and transitioning to the department” as his goals for his first year.
In his free time, Mr. Schroedter likes to stay active and exercise with his wife and Carolina dog/Australian cattle dog mix, Tasha. He spends a lot of time on a bike as a way to “decompress”, and he enjoys going on walks in the park and on the beach with his family. A self-proclaimed foodie, Mr. Schroedter loves finding new places to eat, citing “sitting down with a book and cappuccino and watching the world go by” as one of his favorite things to do.
Mr. Schroedter is looking forward to his first year at Pingry and he is ready to weather the challenges that come with being a new teacher.