Faculty Impact

How Tabor Teachers Inspire a Love of Learning

“A school is never going to outperform its faculty,” says Derek Krein, Tabor’s interim dean of faculty. “If we want to be boundless, we have to cultivate the conditions for people to be inspired in the same way.”

Rick DaSilva ’89 exemplifies this ethos. Since joining Tabor’s faculty twenty-three years ago, DaSilva has been a Swiss Army Knife, serving the school in a number of capacities. The throughline of his career is that he has always modeled a zest for learning.

Tabor’s institutional commitment to professional development has allowed DaSilva to quench his thirst for knowledge while pursuing meaningful initiatives that benefit the entire community.

“Something I’m passionate about,” he says, “is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. That’s not my official role, but as the associate director of the international center, it is DEI work. We’re constantly working on the diversity of our student body, equity for our international students and all our students, and building a community based on inclusion and belonging.”

Taking advantage of external opportunities, like workshops and seminars, has helped advance Tabor’s global vision. DaSilva points to partnerships with schools in Beijing and Copenhagen as tangible progress. He notes that Tabor’s deliberate approach to professional development has fueled this success.

“You can’t just leap in and fly by the seat of your pants. It’s important to connect with the right people, to hear from them, learn from them, and engage with them.”

Over the last five years, DaSilva has also pursued a form of internal professional development.

“I’ve been taking Chinese classes at Tabor,” he says. “We talk a lot about the importance of empathy, and one of the most important aspects is this idea of vulnerability. To sit in class and get the same instructions as the students, to do the same homework and make the same mistakes––that’s centering. It allows for vulnerability.”

DaSilva is not the only faculty member who has learned alongside students. Jocy Su, Tabor’s Chinese teacher, has taken French, Spanish, and ceramics.

“It reminds me how hard being a student is,” she says. “But it’s also a great opportunity to learn from colleagues. Not just content but pedagogy. They offer a wealth of experience, so why not take advantage?”

The cornerstone of Su’s teaching philosophy is a deep consideration for the student learning experience. She has honed her craft by attending language-specific conferences along with more broadly applicable programs. In 2013, Tabor received a multi-year gift that helped fund Mind, Brain and Education (MBE) training for faculty. MBE is a research-based approach to learning sciences, which Su credits with making her a more attuned and dynamic teacher.

“It was transformative,” Krein says of the gift that enabled MBE. “Having gifts like that, which we can really build on and leverage, has reshaped the way we think about learning for our faculty and, therefore, our students. But the smaller gifts are impactful, too. Covid has created so many opportunities in the virtual space. It’s amazing what $200 can do for a department.”

For Tabor’s faculty, the ability to nurture their own love of learning is the key to passing it on to their students.

“Teaching is such an organic process,” Su says. “Professional development is the nutrient that supports your ability to evolve and grow.”

RICK DaSILVA '89, P'21