A Calling to Teach: Alumni in Education

For Nancy Swindell Levine ’07, that connection has come full circle. Now a Tenth Age teacher at Calvert School, Levine vividly remembers her time as a student on Tuscany Road.

“It felt like home,” she says. “I was able to connect with my classmates and my teachers, and they made school fun.”

Now, she finds that same sense of purpose in daily classroom life. She loves seeing the “lightbulb moment” when a student learns something new. She encourages her students to try new things and enjoys watching them grow and discover their abilities.

Levine always hoped to return to Calvert, saying “It was my dream.” She joined the faculty in 2018 and now brings both her experience and her deep connection to the School into the classroom. Calvert’s traditions still mean a lot to her, and sharing her memories helps her connect with students.

“It is fun to connect with them about my experiences here,” she says.

For Sloane Macdonald ’14, the path to teaching started with curiosity and questions. After studying psychology and English at Queen’s University, Macdonald took a seminar on how people learn. “I had never considered a career in education,” she says. “But I had long been curious about how children learn to read and write.”

Thinking back, she realized her early years at Calvert were important for building a strong foundation in language.

“During my most formative years, Calvert had shaped me into a strong reader and writer,” she says.

Through her college course, she realized that not all students have access to the same instruction she did, nor do they learn the same way or with the same results.

This interest brought Macdonald to The Windward School in New York, an independent day school for students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. The School’s teacher training program gave her the chance to learn more about the science of reading and to make a meaningful impact in the classroom.

“I suddenly had the opportunity to teach in a classroom while taking professional development courses that answered my questions about how children learn,” Macdonald shares.

Since joining Windward in 2022, Macdonald has found her passion for teaching. She works with third and fourth graders and especially enjoys helping children learn to read.

“I have absolutely fallen in love with teaching,” she says.

Macdonald’s story shows that alumni don’t have to plan on teaching from the start. Teaching isn’t always a straight path, and there’s always more to learn.

“I would encourage other alums to follow their interests and to look for jobs that offer opportunities to continue their own education,” she says.

She is now working toward a master’s degree in literacy instruction through Windward’s postgraduate program.

As with Macdonald and Levine, Brent Powell ’81 found his way to a career in education through personal experience. His time as a tennis counselor at Camp Pasquany in New Hampshire provided the first spark as he discovered how much he enjoyed working with teenagers and as part of a team. His years as a history teacher at Trinity-Pawling School in New York and Gilman School solidified this interest. For Powell, education became meaningful when he saw students deeply engaged in their own learning.

A formative experience came during his time at Gilman, when he led the Federal Reserve Challenge, in which upper-school students worked collaboratively to research and present a solution to a designated economic topic.

“What I saw were students engaged in deep and powerful ways,” Powell says.

Student participation in the challenge was not for a class or a grade. As an educator, he says this “planted the seed of what student engagement and real-world learning could mean.”

Powell went on to spend 15 years as a teacher and administrator at The Derryfield School in New Hampshire. In his role as Dean of Faculty & Academic Program, Powell realized he could help move the School toward student-centered learning with an emphasis on 21st-century skills. While teaching at Derryfield, he had his students participate in the University of New Hampshire’s Community Changemaker Challenge.

“It really sparked my interest in exploring a deeper educational experience and bringing this type of learning to more students,” he shares.

This led Powell to found the Design Challenge Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering teachers to reimagine what learning looks like in their classrooms and to provide students with opportunities for real-world learning rooted in problem-solving and collaboration. He believes schools should continue to focus on important skills such as critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, and public speaking. These competencies are important no matter how the world changes.

“We’re making a bet on timeless skills,” he says.

For Powell, meaningful learning happens when students feel ownership and agency.

“We need all of our young people to believe that their voices matter,” he explains.

Creating environments where students feel seen, heard, and empowered can transform how they approach learning and themselves. An important focus for Powell and Design Challenge Network is to introduce this approach into environments that may be underserved.

This belief continues to guide his work with students and educators alike. Reflecting on his career, Powell says education offers “a tremendous number of opportunities to have an impact on students.” More than anything, he remains inspired by the chance to help young people become engaged thinkers, collaborators, and lifelong learners.

Much like Powell, Brandon Neblett ’83 expanded his role from teaching to leadership, but his unwavering priority remains his students.

Now Head of Upper School at Glenelg Country School in Ellicott City, Maryland, Neblett began his career teaching history and Latin while working with students in the classroom and through outdoor programs.

“I fell in love with Latin in eighth grade,” Neblett recalls. “There is something magical about it. It’s like a detective story. Latin provides a doorway into languages.”

Calvert’s emphasis on the fundamentals and its distinctive approach to building them has stayed with Neblett his entire career.

“I remember reading with interest the many articles about the ‘Reading Wars’ of the 1980s-2000s because Calvert’s straightforward phonics-based approach was so successful in my time and was ultimately validated across the nation,” he says. “I could never understand why there was any conflict over that. It all seemed so obvious what worked.”

Educators such as his Calvert Seventh Age teacher, Peg Licht, helped inform Neblett’s approach with his own students.

“Mrs. Licht was wonderful,” he says. “So much of what she did was about blending care and accountability for her students.”

Over time, he found he loved teaching and became interested in how schools work as complex organizations. Early leadership roles as grade dean and founding faculty member at Sage Hill School in Orange County, California, taught him to think institutionally. Neblett brought this understanding to his role as history department chair at St. Paul’s School. During his time at St. Paul’s, Neblett worked on special projects that were integral to the strategic direction of the school, which fired his imagination to think institutionally. The experience at both schools galvanized his thinking, showing him how many parts come together to shape a school.

That broad perspective still guides how he leads today. Neblett believes it’s important to help students develop the skills they need for a complex world. In what he calls an “age of information overload,” he says it’s more important than ever to think critically and creatively, work well with others, and stay curious.

“Can you think carefully and deliberately? Can you find and evaluate resources? Can you think clearly from point A to point B and understand the obstacles and resources needed along the way?” he asks.

These are the habits he wants students to develop, along with curiosity and creativity, which he defines in part as the ability to seek alternative answers to traditional questions.

“The ability to ask really good questions is, in my mind, more important than the ability to have an answer,” he says, because it can open the door for different perspectives and pave the way for creative solutions that would otherwise be untapped.

“A lot of kids find their greatest success outside of the classroom,” he says.

He believes that teachers should be flexible, open, and ready to support students in multiple ways. As a school leader, Neblett believes that one of his key roles is to help teachers develop new skills that enable them to have a greater impact.

“Professional development is an important part of leadership,” he says. “You have to look for opportunities for teachers to grow and to broaden what they do.”

Throughout each alumni story, several key themes emerge: commitment to lifelong learning, the value of relationships, and a desire to make a difference in young people’s lives. For those considering a career in education, the alumni offer advice that is both practical and personal. Neblett says that being versatile is more important than ever in today’s schools, and Macdonald emphasizes the value of growth and discovery, urging alumni to stay open to new opportunities.

“I highly recommend that anyone interested explore a path in education,” she says. “It’s incredibly rewarding."

In the end, teaching is more than a job. It is about building connections, sparking curiosity, and caring for students. Every day, teachers help students discover not just what they can learn, but who they can become.

Neblett says, “If you’re looking for a career where you can have an impact and develop lasting relationships, then a career in schools is worth considering.”