Naugatuck High School has welcomed many new students and staff members this Fall. This includes a new intern in the English department, Mr. Anthony Lacerenza.
Mr. Lacerenza, a former NHS student, is a student at the University of Bridgeport currently studying Language Arts and English in hopes to teach others how to become creative writers. At the moment his responsibilities include substituting, lunch duty, and monitoring study halls. Mainly, he is here to learn teaching methods from other teachers.
Mr. L graduated from NHS in 2015. During an interview with The Greyhound he said “Freshman year was shaky. Like a lot of kids, I didn’t really know who I was.” At the start of his sophomore year he joined the swim team and realized that he “wasn’t much of an athlete. At least not one who competes.”
In those years he did a lot of art and writing which has carried on throughout his life. Although this was a very difficult time due to losing his grandfather to pancreatic cancer, he managed to make a solid group of friends. He is still friends with them today.
Due to his heavy interest in art and writing Mr. L did a lot of theater and starred in many shows such as Cabaret, Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, and Persephone, a new myth for a hotter world.During the interview, Mr. L said “I was in line to direct a show but then Covid happen. I, for the mean time, quit theater and pursued English at SCSU.”
Over the years Lacerenza has wanted to pursue many different careers in the arts. “At one point I wanted to be an actor. Then a director and then a playwright. I still want to be a playwright because writing is what I do. After Covid, I needed something that seemed more stable.” Since Mr. L thinks sharing knowledge is cool and he has always excelled in school, he decided to become an educator.
“I came back to NHS because this place makes graduate school feel like a possible undertaking for me. I knew I needed to intern in a school and eventually student teach, and so returning to a familiar place was comforting.” Being a former student, many of the English teachers already know him.
During the interview, he quoted the book “Backwards & Forwards” by David Ball, “Going forwards allows unpredictable possibility, going backwards exposes that which is requires.” Going back to a place where you already were, where you know the educators are reliable, can be comforting for some in a time like that.
Other than being a former NHS student, Mr. L is also a former journalism student. In fact, he was in Mrs. Dymond’s very first Journalism class. After being asked what he liked about the class he said, “Creative liberty. She allowed, in fact, encouraged each and every one of us to use our voices and to be loud doing it. Before Mrs. Dymond took on the class, Mrs. Messenger was teaching it. “She took on a new role back then, but that allowed Mrs. Dymond to come in and learn with us. We all helped each other out, and it was a beautiful environment, where a lot of wonderful and inspiring writing was able to take place.”
