2022 Summer Scholars

Catelyn Boze teaches at Q.I. Roberts Jr-Sr. High School in Florahome, a small town in rural Northeastern Florida. She has taught at Q.I. Roberts for over seven years, serving as the school’s English Department Chair. Currently, she teaches AICE Classical Studies, AICE Literature, AICE Global Perspectives, and AICE American History. In addition to her teaching, she also coaches the school’s academic team and advises the school’s Interact Club. A proud graduate of the University of Florida, Catelyn earned a B.A. in Geography and Medieval Studies, plus a master’s degree in English Education. She is also a member of the Florida Teacher Lead Network and the Dante Society of America. More recently, she was awarded a New Perspectives on Primary Sources Fellowship with the Library of Congress and the National Council of Teachers of English. As a part of this project, she is currently working on a book chapter entitled “From Sparta to Seneca Falls,” which focuses on a unit of instruction that uses primary sources to explore the women’s movement’s use of the imagery of the Classical period. Outside of teaching, Catelyn enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with her husband, son and the family’s two dogs.

Jeremy Brown teaches middle school history at Trinity Christian School, a classical school in Pittsburgh, PA. He’s leading a trip of students to Rome next summer and he can’t wait to do this seminar and hopefully be a better teacher and guide for his students. In his spare time, he loves traveling and playing frisbee golf.

Bethany Henshaw is so excited to learn more about ancient Rome alongside a group of dedicated scholars! She teaches high school drawing and painting just outside of Minneapolis, MN. Art history courses and trips to Italy make up most of her understanding of and fascination with Italian history, but she’s hungry for more! She’s learned a lot about archaeology over the past few years, and recently received a grant to co-teach a workshop on the petroglyphs in Jeffers, Minnesota. She’s excited to potentially tie some of the archaeological inquiry and investigation work that she’s done for that workshop into what she learns in this seminar. She’ll even get a chance to try some things out as she’s bringing student to Rome and Pompeii next year!

Leo Landrey teaches Latin to students grades 7-12 at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, CA. In fifth grade he became obsessed with the Aztec and Mayas, then in sixth grade he read the Iliad and was fascinated by the strange society it revealed. Since they didn’t offer Nahautl or Ancient Greek at his middle school, he chose to study Latin. He received his Ph.D. in Latin and Ancient Greek from Brown University in 2012, writing a dissertation on Roman Epic. After working at Bucknell University and Fordham University, he decided he enjoyed teaching Latin most of all, and was fortunate enough to land at Bishop’s. By participating in Digital Ancient Rome, Leo looks forward to deepening his understanding of the ancient Roman city and the people who called it home. He is excited to meet and collaborate with other teachers. He is grateful for the space the seminar will provide to think intensively about Rome and develop lesson plans tailored for his Latin classroom. He is modestly hopeful that he will get a chance to practice his spoken Latin during his time in St. Peter. When he is not writing tests, lesson-planning, teaching, and grading, Leo enjoys exploring southern California, hiking, and going to concerts and baseball games.

Deb Manning teaches 7th grade social studies in Medfield, MA. This fall will mark her 23rd year of teaching, following a previous career in computer sales. She started teaching at the high school level for a couple of years but found her true passion surrounded by the snark, resourcefulness, and bold inquiry of 13 year olds. They are her people! Her curriculum starts in the ancient world with the Greeks and Romans and moves forward through the 1500’s ending with the Renaissance and the Reformation.  When she’s not enjoying her time in her classroom, she likes to travel (both in the US and around the world), design and create stained glass windows, and try out new restaurants and cuisine around the city of Boston. She enjoys the learning and collaboration of summer seminars and can’t wait to meet everyone and jump into the curriculum of the Digital Ancient Rome program.

Nicola McCutcheon teaches all levels of high school Latin at Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC. She started there just four years short years ago, following her time at Georgetown University’s post-bac program and her undergrad degree at Boston College. She loves her job more than she could have ever imagined; helping young people think critically about the ancient world, preparing them to engage ethically with their communities, and celebrating their growth and success is immensely fulfilling and rewarding. She’s excited to share, listen, and work with former teachers, new colleagues, and friends this summer at Digital Ancient Rome!

Mandy Palik is a teacher at Baku International School in Baku, Azerbaijan with QSI. She has had a deep love for the classical world that was even able to bring her to Greece with the Athenian Agora excavations after receiving her degree in Classical Studies from Randolph-Macon College in the 90s. She then spent 15 years in foodservice management and decided to end the long hours of stress and transition into teaching. She has been a teacher for 8 years and has taught in international schools around the world. She currently teaches Middle and Secondary humanities with everything from early civilizations through AP Research. When she is not teaching, she’s back in the States and traveling with her dad. Her home base is in Huntsville, Alabama where she was mostly raised. She considers the ability to teach overseas one of the best opportunities to help shape her worldview.

Carly Pugh is both a student and a teacher in Boone, NC. She teaches middle school social studies at Cove Creek School, and her sixth graders love to learn about Ancient Civilizations. She’s excited to learn more about Rome and put some of her tech skills to good use. She’s also working on a Master’s in Library Science at Appalachian State where digitizing content has been a huge theme in the program. Her husband is a math teacher and their two lovely cats are named Nugget and Tuna. Traveling is her absolute favorite, and she works a part time job bartending at a winery to support that habit. She’s been to Rome twice, but it’s been several years. She’s also enjoyed seeing glimpses of Roman history throughout Europe, and can’t wait to go back.

George Rouse is a middle school Latin teacher for Great Hearts Academies. He has taught in various schools around the country for the past few years both public and private. His background is Medieval Latin and so he is excited to have a summer seminar that might enrich his pedagogy and knowledge of classical culture.

Analisa Soverns-Reed is a new history teacher. She currently teaches Modern World History and Contemporary World Issues. Her goal is to teach art history as it is her passion! She utilizes social media (Instagram, YouTube, etc.) to create free art history content through her passion project, Accessible Art History. She is thrilled to be a part of the Digital Ancient Rome seminar as it will give her a new perspective on her favorite city and her favorite subject!

Shawn Staines is very excited to be participating in Digital Ancient Rome! He teaches Latin at Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, MA. The use of digital tools to better explore the classical world has always been of interest to him, so he’s looking forward to being able to share more of them with his students!

Daylon Thomas is a fourth year high school teacher and Michigan State University alumnus. He grew up in 5 states: born in Washington State, moved to Florida, Connecticut, Hawaii, Florida, Hawaii, Florida, and finally Michigan his junior year of high school. He has on brother, one adopted sister, four cats, and four dogs. The majority of his childhood was in Pearl Harbor as a Navy Brat, and though he doesn’t remember much Hawaiian, he was taught about other cultures starting young. Since the age of six, he’s been obsessed with the ancient world. His interest began with films like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, The Clash of the Titans, and The Prince of Egypt, and it was nurtured by his mother through reading Edith Hamilton’s Mythology among so many other stories at night. His parents took him to any and every museum they could, and traveled when they could. They took him on a life-changing trip to Egypt, and he’s been lucky enough to go to Mexico, Thailand, and other places in childhood. At one point, he majored in anthropology, but switched to an interdisciplinary major in social sciences. In terms of hobbies, he likes to workout/weight train, read, draw, write, travel and drink copious amounts of overpriced tea.

Annie Williams is finishing up her seventh year as a public school teacher. Although she’s taught lots of different history courses, she currently teaches world Civilizations, American Political Systems, and Special Topics in American History at Farmington High School in Missouri. She is super excited to participate in the Digital Ancient Rome program so that she can add to her content knowledge and create more engaging lessons for her students.

Maddy Wyatt teaches Latin I, II, III, as well as International Studies at Robious Middle School in Midlothian, Virginia. Some of her favorite yearly classroom activities include: Roman perfume day, gingerbread Roman villas, Apicius’ Roman banquet, and Versipellis (A CI spoken Latin twist on Mafia). She has some archaeological experience from working on digs in Transylvania and Athens, so she loves to incorporate ancient inscriptions into the Latin classroom. In her free time, she’s an avid fantasy reader, girls high school volleyball coach, and backyard gardener. She’s looking forward to connecting with colleagues from across the US, and sharing wonderful pedagogical tools and ideas with her Latin community.

Juliana Wilson was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She stayed close to home for college and attended Texas State University in San Marcos. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted to get a degree in when she started college but just continued to take classes that interested her until she had enough credits for a degree. That makes it sound blasé, however, in that pursuit of a degree she fell down the rabbit hole of history and fell in love with the subject. Teaching is a natural way to spend time with the subjects we love and inspire that spark of affection in others. However, there has been so much growth in her hometown over recent years that made it very difficult to find a teaching position after she graduated. It wasn’t until covid instigated an unprecedented wave of teacher resignations that she was able to find an opening.  She now teaches on-level and inclusion U.S. History in Round Rock, Texas. She enjoys summers off to travel with her dogs and her husband, who is also a history nerd, visiting all manner of historical sites and national parks. Additionally, when she can find some spare time she enjoys collecting antiques, reading, listening to podcasts, and restoring furniture.