Emily Glatter '09 Spotlight

I graduated from Wellesley in June of 2009 and moved to California the following month.  I didn’t have a job, but my girlfriend was starting a PhD program at UC Berkeley, and I was hopeful that I’d be gainfully employed as a teacher (my dream job) by the end of the summer.  I pieced together freelance writing, tutoring, and babysitting jobs, and in September I was hired as a part-time middle-school Latin teacher at a boys’ choir school.  I remember excitedly emailing Ray Starr and my Classics-major friends about the job, thrilled that I’d found a teaching job in my area of study. 

The school was fairly young, and while the choir program was phenomenal, the academic program was still finding its feet.  Over the next few years my role at the school grew; in addition to Latin I began teaching English, U.S. history, and math to fifth graders.  In true Wellesley fashion, I went above and beyond my teaching responsibilities to improve the community, collaborating with teachers and administrators to streamline school policies and procedures.  Because of these efforts, I was named Dean of Academic Administration.  At first glance, it may seem that this position is surprising for a relatively young Latin and Classics major, but I know the reason I am able to handle these responsibilities in addition to teaching is my training in Latin.  Latin requires translators to be extremely detail-oriented and analytical, considering each word closely and taking into account many factors that influence its meaning before understanding the best way to place each word within a sentence.  I use this kind of thinking every day in my administrative assignments, and I don’t know that I would be able to balance it all if I hadn’t had four years of practice at Wellesley.