Among the strengths of Portsmouth Abbey School are its "challenging academic curriculum rich in mathematics and science and built upon a signature humanities program," as well as the talented and dedicated faculty who implement our curriculum. Each year the Abbey recognizes that talent and dedication with the Dom Peter Sidler Teaching Awards. Established in 2000 by Tom '60 and Meg Healey, parents of Jeremy '91, in honor of their friend, the late Dom Peter Sidler, the Sidler Awards recognize two members of the School's teaching faculty for distinction in teaching. The awards are based on nominations by peer faculty and recommendations to the Headmaster from a committee consisting of the Academic Dean and the two most recent honorees. One award is given to a junior faculty member who has displayed superior potential, and the other is given to a senior faculty member who has shown sustained excellence.
This 2016-17 academic year, the Dom Dom Peter Sidler Teaching Award recipients are senior faculty member Laureen Bonin and junior faculty member Kevin Calisto.
A native of Los Angeles, CA, Laureen received her degree in English from Loyola Marymount University and has now been teaching English to high school students for over thirty years.
At Portsmouth Abbey Laureen has taught Introduction to Literature, Creative Writing, and American Literature; served as advisor to The Beacon newspaper and The Raven magazine (both of which have won Columbia Scholastic Press Association awards); been an assistant houseparent and head houseparent for 10 years in St. Mary's House and St. Brigid's House; helped to cast the Abbey's dramatic productions with director Jay Bragan for the last 15 years; and heads the Culinary Arts Club because she loves food, cooking, and feeding people. Visit the Portsmouth Abbey Culinary Arts blog for photos and stories: https://abbeyculinary.org/
Laureen works to make classes memorable for her students. Her Fifth-Form American Literature class has been reading Moby Dick over winter term and has met in places that provide experiential reference to the content of the story. They recently gathered on the deck of the McGuire Fine Arts Building to read the chapter called "Christmas Morning," when the crew of the Pequod takes off to hunt Moby Dick. "It was a freezing cold day, so the students were able to experience what the whalers did when leaving from our own Nantucket right around the corner," said Laureen. The class resonated with Melville's text of so long ago: "At last the anchor was up; the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor."
Laureen is married to Michael, who holds the Dom Damian Kearney Chair in English and was a recipient of the 2008 Dom Peter Sidler Teaching Award, senior faculty member who has shown sustained excellence. Laureen and Michael have three children: Drake '11, Fletcher '13 and Sydell '18.
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Kevin Calisto is the Head of Visual Arts. He was born and raised in Bristol, RI. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.F.A. in art education and painting from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, and has studied abroad in Florence, Italy, where he expanded his knowledge of printmaking and art history. Throughout his undergraduate studies, Kevin worked as a gallery assistant and a K-12 fine arts teacher. Returning to Rhode Island after graduating, Kevin enrolled in the graduate fine arts program at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in drawing, from which he graduated in May 2012.
Kevin is a working artist with a studio on Portsmouth Abbey's campus. He finds that his studio work directly relates to problem-solving in the classroom. Kevin seeks inspiration from his students on a daily basis. They provide him with new and original ideas for his own work. It is Kevin's passion to not only teach art but for his students to appreciate fine art in their daily lives. Kevin and his colleague, Joney Swift, planned and organized a Prague, Czech Republic trip in 2014 for aspiring art students, and they will continue to do it every other summer. For 10 days they explore the culture, architect, art, and city of Prague.
In addition to being a Visual Arts teacher, Kevin is an assistant houseparent in St. Hugh's. Kevin enjoys spending time baking a variety of goodies for both his classes and the boys of St. Hugh's. In the fall, Kevin is the assistant boys' varsity soccer coach and the assistant boys' squash coach for the winter term. For a closer look at Kevin's personal artwork, please visit his blog site: http://kevincalisto.blogspot.com.
Multimedia piece by Kevin Calisto, 2016