Former Students Now Are Teachers, Staff
Alums go back to school at SMS
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The St. Margaret’s campus was home for Jody Perkins Lewis ’66, daughter of long-time English teacher Hannah Mallory Perkins ’40. She lived in a faculty apartment in Latané Hall and later, in the Brockenbrough House. She attended the SMS summer school. But she never imagined she’d return to school years later as an English teacher. “It’s been 10 years last October, and sometimes, I feel like I’m 16 again when I run up the steps in St. Margaret’s Hall,” she said. “The school’s much more similar to when I was a student than it is different. Some of the buildings are new, but the school’s warmth and spirit are the same.”  Mrs. Lewis is one of six SMS faculty and staff this year who also attended the school as a young woman. She and her colleagues share the opinion that their experience on the other side of the desk provides the school with stability, a deep sense of mission, and a special understanding of current students. Her early years on campus also show that she was adept in dealing with the administration.Together with childhood neighbors Elizabeth Gawen Johnson ’66 and Ellen Lewis Bane ’66, at the age of about 10 she built a girls’ clubhouse in an ivy-covered tree next to the Brockenbrough House. When the girls heard that the tree was in danger of being cut down, they invited Headmistress Viola Woolfolk to join them up in the branches for lunch. |
  "...their experience on the other side of the desk provides the school with stability, a deep sense of mission, and a special understanding of current students." |
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“We showered her with gifts,” Mrs. Lewis said, “including some really horrible, cheap earrings that we thought were beautiful and she, of course, said were lovely. You know, that tree wasn’t cut down until after we graduated from St. Margaret’s!” Mrs. Lewis taught at Collegiate and St. Gertrude’s in Richmond before moving to Tappahannock with her family in 1992. As an SMS student, she headed the literary club and wrote for the school newspaper and magazine. |
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The last words of her SMS yearbook entry predicted, “I will miss this place and I will be back,” and Kate Taylor ’83 was true to her word. A five-year boarding student, Ms. Taylor is the daughter of the late Jessemine Gant Taylor ’50. She joined the school’s Board of Governors in 1996 and returned to work at St. Margaret’s in 1999 as Latané Hall Dormitory Head after completing her board term. She now serves as Director of Student Life, planning after-school and weekend activities, administering the disciplinary (“marks”) system, and coordinating permissions and travel.  “Being an alumna helps me greatly with my job,” she said. “I think I relate better to the girls because I have been through what they are going through. I have walked in their closed-toe shoes!”Ms. Taylor was a Singerette, hockey player, and yearbook photography editor during her student days. Today, SMS offers an even broader range of options to students: more teachers, subjects, classes, leadership opportunities, sports teams, and weekend activities. “Yet it’s the same number of students, the same environment for nurturing girls, and the same environment for helping them to succeed in all aspects of their lives,” she said. “I know St. Margaret’s made a difference in my life, and can only hope that I can give back to the girls just a fraction of what I got from my experience.”  Making the switch from student to staffer in less than 10 years has had its surprises for Jenni Booker ’93 and Natasha Kollaros ’93. Both alumnae said they had no idea as students how hard the school’s adults worked on their behalf. Like other graduates employed by St. Margaret’s, finding themselves living and working at their old high school may have come as the biggest surprise of all.“My mother told me as a senior that I’d be back at St. Margaret’s in 10 years,” said Ms. Kollaros, “but I didn’t believe her, even though I won the award for having the greatest appreciation of the school!’ The two classmates returned to St. Margaret’s for many of the same reasons. “I wanted to touch at least one student in the same way that teachers like Mrs. Sgroi, Miss Velletri, and Miss Spears touched me,” said Ms. Booker, Director of the Annual Fund and a two-year boarder.  Ms. Booker returned to St. Margaret’s in 1999 after working in college recruitment for Capital One. Being an alumna has been an asset to her work in the school’s Development Office, she said, because she can talk about her own love for and support of St. Margaret’s when she meets with prospective donors. In May, she will bring the experience she gained at SMS to a new position as Director of Development at the Cultural Arts Center in Glen Allen.“I came back because St. Margaret’s was instrumental in my life,” said Ms. Kollaros, the school’s Director of Residence and a three-year boarder. “I’d like to give back some of the love and support that I received at a crucial time.” Now she’s living in a dorm she once inhabited as a student and working with her former senior class sponsor, Assistant Head for School Life Cathy Sgroi. A recent graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work with experience as a teen social worker, Ms. Kollaros is completing her first year on staff. Visiting her parents in Tappahannock one weekend in 2001, Head Nurse Blair Gregory Blanks ’86 thought how nice it would be to move back to her hometown. She opened the local paper, saw an ad for a position at St. Margaret’s, and knew she had found her opportunity. “It’s perfect for me,” she said. “I always loved the school, and now I live right across the street in my grandparents’ house.”  The five-year former day student is the daughter of Betty Barbour Gregory ’55. As a student, she served on the Honor Council, chaired the Day Student Council, captained the Grey Team, played two sports, and won the School Prize.It was strange at first, she said, to be a colleague of former teachers like Marshall Lloyd, Shannon Spears, Cathy Sgroi, and Louise Velletri, but she quickly adjusted. Ms. Blanks practiced nursing for 11 years in inpatient, outpatient, and home healthcare settings before joining the school’s staff. What she learned at St. Margaret’s prepared her well for college and a professional career, she said. “St. Margaret’s expected a lot, but it taught me so much: how to be organized, manage time, be self-disciplined. When I went to college, it was easy compared to here.” |
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Chemistry teacher Sara Acree Brooks ’79 credits her chemistry teacher at St. Margaret’s, Libba Hayes, with sparking her interest in science. “She was a tiny little woman who just radiated energy,” Mrs. Brooks said. “What I especially liked about her was that if we asked her a question to which she didn’t know the answer, she’d say, ‘I don’t know, but I will find out for you’–and she always did. She’s one of the reasons I studied chemistry in college.”  A lifelong resident of nearby Miller’s Tavern, Mrs. Brooks worked for five years as a research chemist at the American Tobacco Company before taking time off to raise daughters Ligon ’07 and Corbin. Director of Studies ViAnn Farmer approached her at church one day in 1998 and mentioned that St. Margaret’s was looking for a chemistry teacher. The rest, as they say, is history.“I remember what it was like (to be a student), but I try real hard not to do a whole lot of ‘When I was here,’” Mrs. Brooks said. “The students are tickled, though, to learn that I have the same date for May Ball that I did my senior year, because my husband was my high school boyfriend.” Mrs. Brooks attended SMS as a day student for five years and was vice-president of her senior class. “It’s fun to be back,” she added, “because having been here before as a student, I have an extra layer of knowledge about the school.” |
 They Worked Here, Too A number of other alumnae work part-time as tutors or coaches, or have been St. Margaret’s teachers, coaches or administrators over the years: Anne Altaffer ’92 Deborah McClure Ball ’79 Vivianne Scheper Barrett ’85 Cathy Boyd ’90 Mary Russell McMurran Callis ’86 Elizabeth Halberstadt ’94 Susan Blackford Hankins ’75 Elizabeth Ware Katona ’76 Julia Fleming Long ’76 JoJo Elliott McKinley ’83 Ann Tayloe Neuman ’59 Sandy Richardson ’74 Carrie Rhinesmith Rudder ’85 Marguerite Wamsley ’87 Billie Goodwin Williams ’38 Susan Yates ’84 |
