Dr. Chandra Mongroo leaves to work in non-traditional education

Michelle Grinberg Staff Writer

“Dr. Mongroo truly creates the best possible learning environment for all of her students and takes the time to get to know them individually,” Jordan Capla-Wasserman (10) said. Math teacher Dr. Chandra Mongroo joined the school community last year to fill the role of a teacher on maternity leave while Mongroo completed her doctorate and searched for a more permanent teaching position at a university. Mongroo taught both Geometry and Algebra 2.

While Mongroo enjoyed her time at the school, she has always intended to continue her career teaching at higher levels of education. “I just wasn’t ready to end my university life and I am very excited to work with a new batch of students next year,” she said. This coming year, Mongroo will be working with non-traditional adults who decided to return to school later in life.

Teaching at the school was different from previous teaching experiences Mongroo has had. “At a college level, the curriculum is more conceptual, but we are always running out of time,” Mongroo said. Mongroo taught at Hunter College, where classes are one semester long, before coming to the school, she said. “I enjoyed the more collaborative nature of a year-long course in which there was more time to explore what the students were truly interested in.”

Mongroo’s entertaining and carefree nature made for a fun, but also productive, classroom environment, Wendi Zhong (9) said. “She is very good at explaining the material and goes the extra mile to ensure the class understands it.” She will definitely be missed, Zhong said.

Math teacher Samantha Lehn began teaching at the school alongside Mongroo this year. “Since we teach all the same classes, I have enjoyed collaborating with her,” Lehn said. “I will definitely miss her next year but I’m excited to hear about the work she will be do ing.”

Capla-Wasserman switched to Mongroo’s class after the first quarter and Mongroo went the extra mile to schedule numerous meetings with him to ensure a smooth transition, he said. “She really goes above and beyond to make sure we have the best understanding of the material.”

At the school, Mongroo loved seeing the exuberance and liveliness of the stu dents, she said. Mongroo enjoyed hearing the creative names geometry students at the school had given to the various geo metric theorems throughout the year, she said. “Some of my personal favorites are the ice cream cone theorem, MOMOLELE, and the triple threat theorem.”