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Faculty & Staff Profile
Danielle Scorrano
and Her Limitless Curiosity for the World of Reading By Stephanie Huie, Associate Director of Digital Communications & Publications
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doctor. A politician. An international spy. These were all different paths that Danielle Scorrano had considered following (some more seriously than others) as a young woman. “As a kid, I had an insatiable natural curiosity for everything I encountered, and I’ve always been inspired by strong women to explore the world around me.” Ms. Scorrano believes her sense of curiosity was due in part to her upbringing. She was born in Orlando, Florida, where her mother’s side of the family resides, and she recalls many trips in her early years to the zoo and the Sea World theme park, where she learned about natural wonders of the Earth. However, her family moved to Westchester when she was in the third grade, so Ms. Scorrano fully considers herself “a ride or die New Yorker.” In school, she was a keen soccer player who was never more joyful than when she was on the field. She also started coaching others herself at the young age of 10. “But I also had this quality about me as a kid, which I can now align with Susan Cain’s concept of bittersweet,” said Ms. Scorrano. “While I appreciated the beauty and joy of life, I felt deeply about the loss, grief, and uncertainty that comes with being human. So I wanted to pursue a career that enabled me to do something about it.” This perspective led Ms. Scorrano to follow through on one of her earliest ambitions —politics. In college, she majored in political science and international business and worked for a senator, focusing on health care and social issues. Later, Ms. Scorrano focused on environmental lobbying. Although she enjoyed the thrill of politics, she missed the community and learning brought by education. She reflected on her values of curiosity, community, and service, and looked again to the strong women she admired and examined why. “Many women in my family are teachers, and I found so much joy coaching soccer, so I thought that teaching would better align with my passions.” Following her undergraduate studies at Loyola University Maryland, Ms. Scorrano worked with AmeriCorps in Baltimore, teaching high schoolers and coaching soccer. She next moved back to New York and taught social studies at a charter school, while starting courses for her master’s degree in education at Manhattanville College. But then 28
The Compass Spring/Summer 2022
Ms. Scorrano took a pause. In these pursuits, she wanted to learn in a school community that provided the tools for her to be a more deliberate teacher, and she found Windward. “Windward was the perfect school for me that offered onthejob training. I was able to learn all about the theories and concepts about what it meant to be an effective teacher and apply those immediately in the classroom. The layers of classes and comprehensive deep dive into the Windward student population were exceptional, but the real secret sauce was the relationships.” Ms. Scorrano shared that her mentors Tanya Ehrlich, Colleen McGlynn, and Diane Schonberger, as well as members of her cohort like Jeremy Bletterman and Katherine Kaneko (“the dream team” as she called it), made her first years at Windward so memorable. Additionally, Ms. Scorrano recalls that being a part of the cohort of lead teachers to open up the Manhattan campus, under Leslie Zuckerwise’s leadership, were “the best times.” She said, “The first year we were on two floors at the 97th Street building on the Upper West Side. In those days, we knew what we had to do to make the year a success, despite its challenges. There was no hesitation to help each other because we were in it together.” The Manhattan team moved into its permanent campus location on the Upper East Side the following year, and Ms. Scorrano continued teaching in the middle school. She was in the classroom for seven years, but, over time, her journey progressed more towards studying the research behind Windward’s methodology. She said, “As a teacher, I knew that what I was doing was working, but I wanted to understand why this instruction was so effective.” Ms. Scorrano was
Ms. Scorrano’s Top 3 Inspirational Women 1. Brené Brown 2. Robin Roberts 3. 1999 US Women’s National Soccer Team
