Sue Schwartz

Sue Schwartz, English Teacher

sschwartz@newrootsschool.org, 607-882-9220

I grew up in Ithaca, New York and have spent my professional life working with youth in Ithaca and the surrounding areas. As a teen, I was committed to improving the Ithaca community and was deeply influenced by the years I spent volunteering at Loaves and Fishes, a local soup kitchen.  I was also an avid reader and creative writer who looked to literature and creative writing as tools for self-exploration, a practice that I have carried on throughout my adult life.  Upon graduating from Ithaca High School, my desire to understand the broader issues of social justice and globalization led me to spend five months volunteering as an English teacher in Nepal, one year studying international development in Zimbabwe, and then to earn my bachelor's degree in Anthropology at Bard College.  When I returned to Ithaca, I spent the next nine years helping local teens explore their passions and improve their community by arranging career internships and organizing service learning programs at a not-for-profit youth organization called The Learning Web.  My love of literature and writing, my enthusiasm for providing young people with hands-on community-based learning opportunities and my devotion to helping young people succeed inspired me to become an English Language Arts teacher. I earned my Master of Arts in Teaching Adolescents degree at Ithaca College.

As an English Language Arts teacher, my goal is to help students become masterful writers, readers, and critical thinkers so that they can lead lives of personal fulfillment and become effective and engaged citizens in our world.  I have always felt that reading literature and writing are not merely solo events; both provide us with the means to grow as individuals and allow us to participate in community life.  I am thrilled that New Roots combines academic scholarship with hands-on community-based learning, and I look forward to helping our students use reading and writing to better understand themselves and their experiences serving and exploring in our greater community.  I am also excited by New Roots' interdisciplinary approach, which will allow students to regularly draw connections between literature, their knowledge of other disciplines and their personal values.  Finally, I am delighted to share in the school's mission of educating students for a sustainable future.