News & Events
WMST PCHS Welcomes Seven New Staff Members
Seven new staff members have joined WMST PCHS this fall, including five current or former teachers who bring more than 45 years of teaching experience. Four of the new staff members hold Master's degrees, including one who also holds a doctorate.
Vivienne Forrester
Vivienne Forrester (Technology), a native of Jamaica, teaches Visual Basic and Computer Applications I & II. A former runner and devotee of the Reggae Boyz Jamaican soccer team, she has been teaching since 2004 at the secondary and post-secondary level in Jamaica. She also played netball in Jamaica, which she says is like a “female version of basketball.”
Her goals for 2009-2010 include obtaining a Microsoft Office Specialist certificate and building her skills in Online and Distance Education Delivery. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Technology, Jamaica and is pursuing a Master's in Management Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Her philosophy is “Life is a learning process; learning is a life long process, you cant separate them.”
Jennifer Gray
Jennifer Gray (Counselor) comes to WMST PCHS after receiving a Master's degree in Education from Bowie State University, with a focus on school counseling. She also hold a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Morgan State University. She works with ninth and 10th grade students at the counseling office.
“Once the kids got here, they accepted me,” she said. Students sometimes like to hang out at the counseling office during their lunch period just to chat. She's also been made to feel very welcome by the teaching staff at WMST PCHS. Ms. Gray is a native of Prince George's County and the mother of a 2-year old daughter, Chrisjen-Leigh White, whose first name she created by combining the first part of her daughter's father's name (Christian) with her own.
Antoinette Head
Antoinette Head (Administrative Assistant), the mother of four children, including WMST senior Darnisha Hilliard, assists Ms. Clayton and Ms. Glover in the front office by answering the telephone and covering the front desk. “I just try to be pleasant,” she said. “I want to give people who visit the school a warm feeling, not a cold feeling.” As a fellow parent, Ms. Head appreciates it when parents call her out of concern for their children after she meets them at the school.
Ms. Head worked as an armored car messenger for five years previously. Her duties included delivering the money and or property to contracting clients.
Jason Holzheimer
Jason Holzheimer (Special Education) is a Boston-area native who is in his fourth year of teaching. He holds a Master's in Special Education from Simmons College of Massachusetts and decided to return to education after studying Pre-Med as a preparation for medical school and working at a research lab in Boston where he studied Zebrafish.
“I'm really excited to be here,” he said after a day of work in his classroom. He accepted the Special Education teaching position at WMST after having a “strong gut instinct” about the school's administrative team, knowing that whatever school he taught at in the city that he would enjoy working with the students.
Orielena Lopez
Orielena Lopez (Spanish) moved from her native Havana, the Cuban capital, eight years ago and taught early childhood at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington for six years, followed by two years of teaching Science and Spanish at ABC Public Charter School in Washington. She's also taught History, Geography and Science in different schools in Cuba.
She holds a Master's degree in Bilingual Special Education from George Washington University and a bachelor's from the Instituto Superior Pedologico Enrique Jose Verona in Cuba. Senora Lopez teaches a salsa class and hopes to launch a salsa club at WMST. She came to WMST after hearing about the Spanish teaching position through a friend who knows Enrique Watson, the former Spanish teacher at WMST.
Saroja Ringo, Ph.D (Director of Staff Development) comes to WMST after 14 years of teaching for Montgomery County Public Schools (Md.). At the University of Maryland in 2008, she completed her doctoral dissertation on increasing the participation and achievement of black students in high school Advanced Placement courses, a dissertation that compared two schools' approaches.
Shannon G. Wilson (Science), a native of the District who was raised in Hyattsville, Md., and Roanoke, Va., received a bachelor's in Biology from the University of Virginia. He was also a walk-on football player for the Cavaliers. He met his future wife at U.Va., the former Ms. Loretta Edwards, with whom he has a 2-year old daughter, Bryce. He comes to WMST PCHS after teaching for nine years at Booker T. Washington Public Charter High School for the Technical Arts in Washington.
In 2005, Mr. Wilson received an MBA from the University of Phoenix Online and began to apply what he had learned from one of his favorite passtimes, carpentry. He launched a business, Cool Tables, in the Summer 2005 in which he initially made novelty chess board and tables, shelving, bars and coffee tables. Over time, Mr. Wilson began working on home improvement projects and installing flooring, remodeling bathrooms and kitchens, and painting interiors. He focuses his attention on this business during his summers after the school year is over.
Mr. Wilson came to WMST PCHS after a seemingly chance meeting with fellow U.Va. alumnus Mark Holbrook, the head of school at WMST, at the Black Alumni Reunion weekend in April. The two didn't know each other previously but it turned out that they'd both studied Biology at U.Va., and had at least one professor in common. They found they had this in common while congregating around a large telescope in the Astronomy Department and viewing planets.
Additionally, former WMST Spanish teacher and native of Panama Enrique Watson now works in the counseling office with eleventh and twelfth grade students.