As many members of the HSMSE community remember, the end of last year also came with the departure of some beloved faculty members, including Ms. Kasi, who taught U.S. History, U.S. Government, and Economics. Whilst congratulating her on her retirement, many students were left wondering who would fill her shoes: the answer to this is none other than Ms. Engelhardt. She shadowed Ms. Kasi and Mr. Trimarco during the spring semester of last year, but this is her first year at HSMSE as a full-time teacher, and students are curious: What’s the new teacher like? In this exclusive interview, The Echo covers everything from her takes on true crime to her traumatic flight experience.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
OG: If you had an infinite fountain of anything, what would it be?
IE: Hot Cheetos; I love Hot Cheetos. Maybe not because I’m kind of scared they’re gonna give me cancer, so let me change my answer … Hmm. I like the strategy of something expensive: an endless fountain of designer clothes.
EDW: Which designers?
IE: Probably Vivienne Westwood.
OG: What’s on your Spotify Wrapped?
IE: I would say my current top artist is Remi Wolf. Last year, my Spotify Wrapped was Remi Wolf, Japanese Breakfast, Charli XCX, FKA twigs, and MUNA. “Oh My Love” by FKA twigs was my number one song, then “Anthony Kiedes” by Remi Wolf, then “Till Death” by Japanese Breakfast, “But Not Kiss” by Faye Webster, and then “Down the Line,” also by Remi Wolf.
EDW: You’re a big fan of Charli XCX. How do you feel about “Kamala is brat?”
IE: Oh, genius marketing move.
EDW: If you had to get married to someone and then divorce them really quickly, who would you pick?
IE: Lana Del Rey, because she does that; it’s like her brand. And I just love Lana. I’m obsessed with her marriage right now—she got married to that alligator guy. Like, I want to be the alligator guy. It would just be like “Lana marries some random New York City public school teacher” and everyone would be like “okay, Lana’s just doing it for the bit.”
OG: Do you believe in anything supernatural, and do you have any ghost stories from your own life?
IE: I don’t know whether it’s supernatural, but sometimes you get this feeling in your stomach and there’s a reason why it’s happening, and it’s a higher power maybe. But no, I’m not a very supernatural person. As for ghost stories… Oh! At my college [Bryn Mawr], we had this thing called Lantern Night where you dress in robes and then you go like this *bobs hand up and down* with your Lantern, but that wasn’t supernatural. That was just more like a cult.
EDW: If you had an opportunity to teach any really obscure class here, what would you pick and why?
IE: Something that I would love to teach would be a history of epidemics or pandemics; I took a college course about that. Or even just a public health class. I’ve also taken survey classes where you literally just study a city, like New York as a learning lab.
OG: Is that [COVID-19] why you took that class?
IE: No, my professor who taught it is an expert specifically on African disease. He studied the history of African public health and disease. He’s a legend, his name’s Kalala.
OG: You studied to be a city planner in school. How did you make the transition from doing that to becoming a teacher?
IE: So, in undergrad, I studied Growth and Structure of Cities, which was more the theory behind city planning. A lot of my friends ended up becoming city planners. I would read a lot of political theory and apply it to city life. When I was in undergrad, I liked my classes, and I was looking ahead to my junior year: what I was going to be doing next? Urban planning was kind of always my plan, but I met with my professor and she just said “If that’s what you’re going to do, you have to be absolutely positive when you make that commitment because [school] is a lot of money. And if you hate it, you’re gonna really hate it.” I started learning more about what my actual job would be: me sitting in an office and looking over laws and ordinances at the city level and then approving or not approving them. So, I’d be looking at and creating maps. I knew how to do that stuff, but I just realized I don’t really want to sit at a desk all day, stare at stuff, and not really interact with anyone. What I like doing is working with people and helping people. And throughout all of this, I was a history minor. Those ended up being my favorite classes towards the back half of my college experience. Both of my parents are teachers and so they were just like, “Why don’t you become a teacher?” and I was like, “because I don’t want to be just like you, that’s so lame and sad of me.” But then I ended up doing it anyway!
OG: You taught at other schools before HSMSE. What were they like?
IE: Different. [laughter]
EDW: What’s your sun, moon, and rising in your birth chart? Do you believe in astrology?
IE: I do not believe in astrology but I do know everything. For my sun, I’m a Leo, I’m a Capricorn moon, and I’m a Scorpio rising.
EDW: You’re a Leo—how does that make you feel?
IE: The stereotype is that I’m self-centered, that I’m all about myself and I like attention. I guess becoming a teacher kind of fits that, but I don’t really identify as a Leo.
EDW: What are your top movies?
IE: I’m thinking of movies I’ve seen recently … I really liked Parasite. That’s probably in my top five. I also really liked Fargo, and honestly? I’d probably say Twilight. I love Twilight; it’s my comfort movie. That’s my unserious thing. The books are terrible. I can objectively say it’s a terrible movie. And I do really like Robert Pattinson … I’d say The Boy and the Heron as well. I’m a cartoon person, I really like cartoons.
OG: What’s your biggest irrational fear?
EI: Even though I think there’s a rational reason to be scared of it, I hate flying. I am so scared of flying. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I had one bad experience, and now I’m done.
OG: Can you elaborate?
IE: I was flying to Spain. We were over the ocean and suddenly there’s a loud whoosh, and there’s smoke and stuff coming down and I’m like, “Oh my God, I’m dying. This is it, this is the end for me.” And then the flight attendants come back and they have a fire extinguisher but it won’t stop. And then the pilot came on and said “we have to emergency land.” So then we landed in Portugal, and this was on New Year’s Eve. Then I had to fly back home and that was really bad. When I landed back in New York, I had a migraine for two days because I was so anxious.
OG: Were you scared of flying before?
IE: I was fine flying. I got a little nervous during take off and leave, but I didn’t think about it. Now if I’m about to fly, like a month before it’s happening, I have to mentally prepare. I have a mantra. So yeah, flying is my fear. I know it’s irrational. I know, I’ll be fine. What everyone tells me is, “Well, your thing happened. Now, you’re good, like it’s never gonna happen again.” My mom was like, “Why wasn’t that in the news?” I never even heard about it. How many flights are like this and you just never hear about it? We just redirected and it was declared an emergency, but no one wrote about it. I guess the door of the Boeing flew off right around that time; there was more focus on that. Kind of stole my thunder.
EDW: That’s horrible. Okay, kind of hard to segue from that?
IE: No, it’s okay. I’m here to tell the tale.
OG: Last year during the spring semester, you shadowed some teachers here before you worked full time, was that helpful in adjusting to teaching here? What was that experience like?
IE: Yeah, it was immensely helpful. I worked mostly with Mr. Trimarco and for government, I was with Ms. Kasi. Being able to observe very seasoned teachers who also are very different from each other was very helpful. Just to get to see how they interact with students. Every school in New York City is so different from each other, and so I was able to see what kind of work students at HSMSE like doing, what doesn’t work here, how rigorous to be, and how to get discussions going. It was very, very helpful because if I had come in here blind, it’d be a very hard adjustment. This is not a traditional High School.
OG: Do you think your teaching style is very inspired by both or either of them?
IE: I think I’m pretty different from both of them. I think I’m similar to Mr. Trimarco in terms of my philosophies about technology and emphasizing skills: I really want students to be reading and writing and dissecting documents and using their critical thinking, and I’m pretty anti-having computer work. And I’m very concerned about AI stuff. For Ms. Kasi, I’m moving towards having that spirit of being silly but also being more serious and having a lot of discussions.
EDW: What shows have you been watching?
IE: Well, I do like Survivor a lot … On HBO, there’s an Italian show called My Brilliant Friend. I love that. It’s amazing. I highly recommend the books too. Oh, and do you know The Staircase? It’s like a true crime.
OG: What’s your take on the controversy surrounding Dahmer and the new show they made, The Menedez Brothers?
IE: This is more about the Dahmer show. I think it’s incredibly insensitive to create a show without the permission or knowledge of the victim’s families. I have issues with that. Even The Staircase, it follows the trial and the husband of the woman that passed away. They follow him and his family and it’s a documentary. So I guess you can feel a little bit okay with it because he agreed to it. I don’t know, there’s still a lot of ethical issues: can someone really consent to being filmed like that?
OG: Do you watch Drag Race?
IE: I do.
OG: Who are your favorite queens? What’s the most iconic moment from the show for you?
IE: I love Sasha Velour. I also love the winner from Season 12: Jada Essence Hall. My favorite moment is probably Alyssa Edwards’ “Back rolls?” A new one I loved was when Roxxy Andrews walked in and said “Baby, you can’t read the doll!” and that became a whole meme. I want them to bring on Chappell Roan. I feel like they’re going to bring her on.
EDW: I don’t know, I feel like she wouldn’t get along with RuPaul.
OG: How do you feel about RuPaul?
IE: Business mogul.
EDW: Who are your favorite authors or poets?
IE: Elena Ferrante, who is the writer of My Brilliant Friend. She has a ton of really good books besides just that series. James Baldwin is my favorite author of all time. Oh, I also like Naomi Klein; she’s a political theorist.
OG: You have three siblings, so you’re one of four. What’s that like?
IE: My family’s pretty spread out. My brother is nine years older than me and my youngest sibling is five years younger than me, so there’s a fourteen-year age gap between youngest and oldest. My brother had left for college by the time I was nine, so I didn’t even really grow up with him that much. He left the state and he never moved back. My sister, though, she’s a year older than me, and that was a lot. We shared a room. My younger sibling is like my little baby. I love my younger sibling and I think they can do nothing wrong.
Despite being such a new teacher, Ms. Engelhardt has already made herself at home in our community. She’s quickly become a beloved faculty member to her students and colleagues alike, and has so much yet to experience here at HSMSE. We’re lucky to have her, considering she almost didn’t become a teacher!