Upper School English teach-er Mr. Andrew Maynard will be partially closing the chapter on his time at St. Christopher’s this spring.
 
He has been teaching for 12 years, and received degrees from the University of San Francisco and the University of Arizona (an MFA in writing and BA in creative writing, respectively). Before STC, Mr. Maynard taught eighth grade English at San Francisco Day School and creative writing at both his alma mater and San Quentin State Prison. However, the two most recent years of his career as an educator have been spent in Chamberlayne Hall teaching literature and creative writing to Upper Schoolers.
 
He’s thoroughly enjoyed his time teaching, especially that spent leading his senior elective course, “Writers Workshop.” While Mr. Maynard enjoyed other courses (like sections of 9th grade English), he noted that this was his favorite class to lead. He especially loved it because “it show[ed] student creativity more so than many other classes.”
 
However, he wasn’t the only one that enjoyed the class. One St. Christopher’s senior taking the course said,  “It has been one of my favorite classes of Up-per School because of how open ended he (Mr. Maynard) made the class discussions and the unique format.” He is referring to the workshop process itself, which requires that students bring in personal essays and short stories to be read and given feedback on by the rest of the class.
Though his tenure as a full-time teacher here has been relatively short, Mr. Maynard treasures the many different connections he has made with students and teachers at school, many of which he will carry forth beyond our campus and into next year. Fortunately for students, he won’t be fully leaving just yet, but will be switching to a part-time role and teaching just a few classes during the 2025-26 academic year.
 
To date, his favorite memo-ry at STC has been his James River X-Term trip with Mr. Billy McGuire ’85 last spring, because it both “was a refreshing end to the year,” and “was totally outside of the classroom.” 
While past next year he isn’t fully set on what the future holds or whether he will still be teaching English, as a school we wish Mr. Maynard the best of luck in his future endeavors.
 
Yet, we treasure that he will be a part of our community down the road, whether that be as an educator or friendly face.