After one year, Sasha Barish leaves Horace Mann to pursue Ph.D.

uates he taught, he said.

Before he was hired as a teacher last year, Latin and Ancient Greek teacher Sasha Barish completed his master’s degree at Rutgers University. After a year of teaching at the school, Barish will move on to pursue a Ph.D. in the classics at Stanford Uni versity. Last summer, Bar ish had the opportunity to teach undergraduate stu dents after receiving his master’s degree. However, his job at the school was the first time he instructed high school students, he said.

Because of the frequency and length of the classes at the school, Barish found himself able to connect with students here more than the undergrad-

Barish was impressed by the students’ curiosity and dedication, he said. “I like that the students are doing all sorts of things inside and outside of the classroom and that they are really go-getters.”

Since high school students are also not required to specialize in a certain field, they are better able to explore their interests, Barish said. There is opportunity for students to develop genuine intellectual curiosity when they are not yet focused on developing a career, he said. “I think it’s really exciting when the task of the students is to learn about all sorts of different things.”

Barish teaches mostly half-credit, elective courses and found his students to be very passionate about the subject matter he taught, he said. “The students who take my classes are students who are choosing to take my classes.”

“What stands out to me about Mr. Barish is that he is incredibly knowledgeable,” Gavin Song (12) said. “He has a background not only in classical literature but also in linguistics, so he often brings up the etymological roots of words,” he said. “It’s just unbelievable that a person actually knows that much.”

Henry Levinson (12), who takes Barish’s Ancient Greek D class, felt that Barish helped him improve his translation skills greatly this year, he said. “I think Mr. Barish was able to impart to me a lot of his linguistics-related wisdom and knowledge,

Bri’ana Odom leaves ICIE for Fieldston

Malachai Abbott Staff Writer

“HM’s Office for Identity, Culture, and Institutional Equity [ICIE)] title, purpose, and job responsibilities felt so true to who I am, my studies, and my dedication to uplifting equity and community-building in and out of the classroom,” Program Associate of the ICIE Office Bri’ana Odom said. After working at the school for two years, Odom will leave to work in the Ethics Department at Fieldston as a Middle and Upper Division faculty member, a role which she is very excited for, she said.

After graduating with their master’s degree in 2021, Odom had a variety of ideas in mind for what to do after her teaching fellowship, including continuing to teach Spanish, move into an administrator role, or teach Social Justice and Identity related classes. “When I came across HM’s Office for Identity, Culture, and Institutional Equity I was more excited than I had been reading any other job description,” Odom said. “My years at HM have reminded me that the learning—about yourself and about everything else—never stops. And there’s a lot of beauty and freedom in the fact that we’re constantly ‘becoming’ as the years go on.”

Before coming to the school, Odom worked at a boarding school while pursuing her Master of Science in Education. There, they taught high school Spanish, a class called Diversity and Social Justice, and was an active member of their girls of color affinity group, she said.

“It has been a delight to work with Ms. Odom,” Director of the ICIE Office Christine Moloney said. “Ms. Odom has a strong focus on the individual student experience and always brings her light sense of humor to our which he has an abundance of,” Levinson said. For instance, Levinson remembers how Barish helped students “connect past to present ‘’ by comparing grammatical structures from the original ancient Greek text of The Odyssey to modern English grammatical equivalents, Levinson said.

Song, who is also in Barish’s Ancient Greek D class, remembers having interesting conversations with Barish this year. “We were talking in one class about the Mycenaeans, who used to live in the Greek peninsula, and we had this conversation about the history of the Mycenae and how that interacts with the Homeric epics, which was really fascinating.”

Barish has enjoyed holding his classes outside on the field in the warmer months. “When the weather was good a few weeks ago, we went outside and read some Catullus love poetry and at the end of the period, one student said, ‘This is just like the book The Secret History,’ which is about classics students performing a ritual murder of one of their classmates,” he said. Though Barish’s intentions were not to have students compare reading Latin poetry to ritual murder, The Secret History is a book about the beauty of ancient texts and how much they can move people. “So I suppose I take this student’s comment in a positive way,” Barish said. Although Barish is not sure what he will do after he receives his PhD, he plans to consider a career in teaching, he said.“I am going to Stanford because there are more things that I want to learn about and research,” Barish said. “But I’ve learned a lot about myself as a teacher this year, and I would like to teach in some respect in the future.” interactions.”

Moloney came to the school the same time as Odom, in the fall of 2021. “The roles that Ms. Odom and I were hired for had already changed a week after we started,” she said.

“Some of my favorite memories involve seeing Ms. Odom dance or sing at one of our many social events.”

When looking ahead to the com ing year, Moloney will miss Odom’s integrity and lively energy in the ICIE Office. “Ms. Odom is ir replaceable,” she said. “Her joy is infectious and spreads to everyone around her.”

From getting to know stu dents to ad- vising the preparation of Unity Week workshops, to working with students and UD Science teacher Lisa Scott to bring the step performance to the Black History Month Assembly this past February, Odom will look back on her time at the school fondly, she said. “My advice that no one asked for is to embrace the beauty of the learning journey, take in all the lessons, and celebrate each version of yourself along the