Interview with Dr. Yang-Handy

What are some of your hobbies/ interests?

Mrs. Applegate: I’m a book person, I love reading and I like to write and I’ve always loved creative writing. I love trying out new restaurants and I also love to draw, specifically fashion designing like clothes and costumes.

And finally, What is something you want students and faculty to know about you?

Mrs. Applegate: I think it's important to know that they can come into my office without being in trouble, that’s totally fine! I do know the answers to some of your questions and am willing to find answers for the rest. I just want people to know that I’m excited to be here, and I’m excited to work on school culture!

By Cotton Strong ’23

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with Dr. Yang-Handy, our new Assistant Head of School at Hebron, to ask her questions about her time so far at Hebron and about her position that is both new to her and new to most students at the school. Here is that interview.

I think most people know that you’re from the Philippines, but now you’re in Maine. What led you to Hebron or where have you been before this?

I grew up in the Philippines, but I come from a multicultural and multinational background. My mom is from Finland and my dad is Filipino, of ethnic Chinese heritage. Moving outside of the country and looking for an international experience was just part of my history, my heritage, and my expectation for myself. I actually was born in Australia. I also lived in Taiwan for a little bit, then I came [to the US] for college, now almost thirty years ago, from the Philippines. I went to Clark University, so that was already in New England. I got my master's there as well. Maine was a place I visited, never really lived, until now. It's been really fun getting to know and appreciate the beautiful state that it is. I've known of Hebron before as an independent school and it has a reputation around experiential education and the love of nature and really encouraging those things in students that go to school here. All of those things are really appealing to me when this opportunity presented itself for a shift in work. It's such a privilege to live in a beautiful part of the world. I've had the opportunity to see a lot of the world in my life personally but also professionally running study abroad programs. I think that there are many beautiful places, but this is definitely one among them.

You have a doctorate in education. Did you have to write a dissertation or thesis? Can I ask what it was on?

I did have to write a dissertation. I had a really unique program. It was education, policy and leadership where we looked at pedagogy and theory, but my specialization was in international education. In international education there are many different paths you can follow- one is really understanding education policy on a national level. My degree really focused on these policy issues. Looking at education from the standpoint of “how do different countries create systems and structures and policies of education all across the world?”

18 My dissertation was very different. I wrote about preparing visually impaired people for mainstream employment. I studied specifically a non-profit organization; it was a school for students who were visually impaired and blind. This was a school that was training visually impaired people to be able to have a job that actually paid them well because the options for people who are visually impaired are very limited. Typically, in the Philippines at least, you were a musician. It was like informal economy work that didn't pay very much, so many of these people needed a support system like other family members to pay for things for them. What was really phenomenal about that in relation to what I was interested in was the intersection of policy, education and disability- and then organizations that actually were advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in education and employment.

What specific thing made you want to come to Hebron?

I call myself, and others have called me, an experiential educator. I believe and have learned in my own life that being able to experience things firsthand really is the greatest teacher. Hebron has that reputation of being a school that encourages students to do things, test things out, to be embracing and welcoming of who you are as you step foot into the world because of who you are, not trying to create you or direct you to become something else as a student but how you as an individual can be nourished, nurtured, inspired, supported to find your own way.

Is there anything about Hebron that you weren’t expecting, now that you’re here?

With the marketing and Instagram posts, it did seem like the school was really in touch with maximizing time with nature- like a fun place, like good things were happening. And that’s all true. But I think I’ve really come to appreciate just how caring the community is for one another. I've seen from the Last Words that people are uplifting each other. There's such deep compassion and connection. It seems like students can be who they are and still and grow in ways that are just authentic to themselves, and still feel like part of the community.

Can you explain your position and how you see yourself interacting with students?

First of all, I'm trying to work really hard to learn everybody's names. I think what's really great about my office is that when students walk by multiple times a day, I'm actually quizzing myself. I'm like, “Oh, I don’t know that kid's name.” I look them up , and then I'm like, Okay, I know that person now. The impact I hope is that they know I know their name , and that feels really good, right? In terms of the shifting of the names of the roles and who does what, Emily Carton had a big job. Really big job. It wasn't just me and Ms.Teske but also Mae Applegate and Dr. Swenton taking up pieces of her position. We're also at a very unique time in terms of what the school needs to be focusing on this year and in the next coming years because we're beginning a strategic planning process, which is just developing the long term plan for the school. There’s going to be more opportunities for students to weigh in and share their voice and opinions about different pieces in the future. We’re in the process of identifying the individual sets of responsibilities that are more appropriately Mrs. Applegate’s versus Mr. Hensley versus me and so on. But I'm always here to definitely say hello, get to know each other and support or help out if you’re confused. I hope that answer brings clarity. That’s really, really important. Because I know everyone’s thinking “Who do I go to for this or for that?”