Hay, Kent, and Trumbull retiring at year’s end

Brianna Bellinghieri ’22 | Arjun Bhamra ’22 | Dhilan Lavu ’21 

Ellen Hay

Ellen Hay started out as a replacement history teacher just under 40 years ago. She was one of a few select women in the staff, and also saw the first co-ed class graduate. After teaching history, she became the Director of Admissions for 23 years before finally returning to her current position teaching Upper School History and Psychology. Over the course of her time here, Hay has mentored both Mock Trial and Model U.N., as well as a variety of other clubs. “With Mock Trial, I’ve learned so much about law, and with MUN the opportunity to meet so many different people and have so many unique interactions, it’s so much fun.” 

“Way back,” she adds, “there was even an underground magazine called the Non-Sequitur, and while the Scholium would do typical articles, the Non-Sequitur would get student points, counterpoints, and perspectives on a variety of issues. It was very interesting, and I was the faculty advisor for that club as well.”  Hay mentioned mentioned what she would miss most saying,“I really like being in the classroom with my students and I think I’ve probably learned more from them over the years than in all of my own education.” 

Will Semmer ‘21, who has been Hay’s advisee for the past two years is one of many students who she has made an impact on, “She always puts her students before herself and she’s both extremely fair  and also very invested in her student’s learning. She’s incredibly knowledgeable and a great role model.” 

Although she’ll miss teaching Hay is excited for retirement, “I’ve had a bucket list of things I wanted to do since I was 17. Most  people don’t know what they want to do after retirement, but I’ve got my plan!” Among  her  goals are learning a new language, how to play piano, and volunteering.

Tim Kent

After 37 years of service to the EA community, both in the Latin classroom and on the tennis and squash courts, Tim Kent has decided to retire. Kent is known for his relentless desire to see his students succeed. “If kids are struggling, I would spend countless hours behind the scenes helping them out and redoing the assignments with them.”  In a published essay, Growing Up Dumb, Kent reflects on how his challenges with dyslexia and other learning differences as a child help him to better understand the struggles his own students are going through. In fact, Kent went so far as to take six years to completely rewrite the standard Latin textbook for the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, allowing students of all learning styles to more easily comprehend the material. Kent also has a unique ability to breathe life into a dead language by fostering competition between his students. “I had games between Team A and Team B in my classroom and they had to translate sentences…these kids were fired up about this type of thing–how weird you’re talking about grammar and the kids were fired up.” Rob Corrato ‘21 affirms Kent’s energy and devotion, “As soon as Mr. Kent walks into the classroom, his passion for teaching and learning is noticed instantly. After 37 years at EA, Mr. Kent still continuously strives to make every single one of his students perform to the best of their ability, whether in the classroom or on the courts.” Kent has also had a long career first as the varsity squash and then the varsity tennis coach, winning many Inter-Ac championships. 

 As for legacy, Kent says, “It is my hope that my students will look back on their experience, realizing that they have learned a lot more than just the material in front of them. It is really about how one leads a life of integrity and purpose, inspired and aiming high, and forcing yourself to push a little bit. Ideally I hope to have modeled that myself for the past 37 years.” 

Although EA students may be grateful for all of Kent’s efforts, he believes he has a lot to thank EA for as well: “Interview day, I end up playing tennis by chance with Ms. Maude Wood, and I thought ‘she’s cute and she knows how to play tennis, this is really cool’ and that was the beginning of a long relationship.” For those who do not know, Maude Kent, a longtime former teacher at EA, has been married to Tim for the last 37 years. 

Robert  Trumbull

Throughout his 21 years at EA, Rob Trumbull has taught numerous courses in history and political science, such as Pre-Modern History, U.S History, and AP Government and Politics. 

As the leader of Model UN, Trumbull has developed and transformed the program. “When I first started working with Model UN, there were maybe 6 or 7 students that went to the conference. After upping the requirements and adding extra steps to get into the club, we have 76 students going to the annual conference this year!,” he explains. Currently, one must write a position paper in order to join the club that allows students to “interact with students from around the world on many current world issues” and “opens their eyes to what they are going to be facing when they leave here and when they leave college.” Sona  Bardakjian ‘21 says, “Mr. Trumull’s positive energy is so refreshing and you can tell he just really loves everything he does. It’s really admirable.”

Trumbull is known for his laid back personality and his advice to students reflects that attitude: “You just need to have fun. You can’t take yourself too seriously, you kind of have to go with the flow.” Trumbull plans to follow his own advice in retirement, saying, “I’m going to wait and see where retirement takes me.”