Quin Caretti ’24
The 2021 Mercersburg Academy school year brought with it many new faculty members including Sheri Mahoney. Mahoney was hired to teach Introduction to Biology and Advanced Biology, classes that she was previously teaching in Florida.
Mahoney found her way to Mercersburg Academy after hearing about it from her wife Alysia Oakley, who worked at Mercersburg around ten years ago.
Mahoney said, “I’ve never been at a boarding school so it’s really just the whole boarding experience that I’m excited about. I’m looking forward to living the things I’ve heard about for so long. I’ve heard about Step Songs for five years, right, and I got to experience it for the first time. I am looking forward to Marshall Irving Week and all of the big stuff that you hear about.”
“I’m up for all of the ridiculous things, right, so I don’t know if that’s special or not. But I dressed up every day during Spirit Week, and I’ve been gung-ho about all of those things,” said Mahoney
Outside of the classroom, Mahoney works with Mercersburg Outdoor Education (MOE), “I’ve done outdoor education. Straight out of college I worked at an outdoor education center in New York State. I’ve worked at outdoor education camps after college running backpacking trips and being a resident naturalist. So I did a lot of outdoor education. In New York and then in New Mexico I did a lot of camping and backpacking stuff there.”
Mahoney is excited to work with the program. She said, “When we’re backpacking I am with the kids and so, while we’re doing those things, while we’re hiking, while we’re climbing, we also get to interact and talk. So it’s a lot different than coaching a sport where the kids are on the field and I’m giving them directions from the sidelines, which is a different kind of gratification, but I’m immersed in the activity with the kids. So I get to hike with them, I get to backpack with them as opposed to teaching them how to do it and then letting them go on their own.”
When not teaching or enjoying the outdoors, you can find Mahoney in the kitchen, as she enjoys cooking, or walking her corgi, Pepe.