New Teachers: Amy Coyle, Adam Cheney, Jamie Evans, Julie Trahon, Haylen Gonzalez-Pita
This is the first in a series introducing the new teachers of AHS:
Amy Coyle
Amy Coyle will be teaching Spanish at AHS. Coyle has been working at AES for the past 12 years, and is now returning to AHS. Before employment at AES, she was teaching Culturally and Linguistically Different learners, as well as Spanish, at AHS. Coyle taught Spanish and English at RFHS in Carbondale prior to working at AHS.
Coyle is most excited to reconnect with the high schoolers, as well as dig into one specific subject. Many of the sophomores she has now were the same students as those in her first grade class 10 years ago.
Adam Cheney
Adam Cheney will be teaching Social Studies at AHS. Cheney grew up in and around Williamsburg, Virginia before going to college at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. After teaching in Virginia for 7 years, he traveled the globe to places like: Ankara, Turkey, Belgrade, Serbia, and then to Aspen where he now resides.
Cheney is excited to work with the staff and students at AHS. He is also excited to immerse in the nature surrounding him, but is nervous to get back on the mountain as he hasn’t skied in about 19 years.
Jamie Evans
Jamie Evans will be teaching English at AHS. Evans is an AHS alumna, and previously taught at AMS She was most recently teaching at an independent school in Tacoma, WA. Evans missed the sunshine and the good snow while she was gone.
Evans is most excited to see her students in an actual classroom and to have in-person learning and believes it’s a strange world to create relationships and community online. Evans is also excited for ski day (if that happens).
Julie Trahon
Julie Trahon, originally from Massachusetts, is now an art teacher at AHS. When she started looking for a job, she decided that she would view this experience as an adventure and would be open to moving anywhere. She feels very fortunate to have found her position at AHS, as it is ideal for an art teacher.
Moving to Aspen, Trahon is most afraid of encountering bears. Trahon has traveled to 13 countries and 21 states, not including the ones she’s driven through. She is excited to see what the future holds for her – hopefully not bears, and wants to see what her students are capable of .
Haylen Gonzalez-Pita
Haylen Gonzalez-Pita, a new Science teacher at AHS, was born and raised in Aspen. She too went through the school district, and graduated in 2007. She went on to study Environmental Science, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at CU Boulder. She graduated from Boulder in 2007, and moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She moved back to boulder to get her Masters in Education, and taught at Erie High school for three years. Gonzales Pita now resides back in Aspen.Her father, Kirk Gregory, was a legend in the Social Studies department and retired a few years ago.
Gonzalez-Pita loves ex-ed, the close community, and the access to outdoors and open space for labs. She also is excited to work with the teachers in the science department. In her life, Gonzalez-Pita has been bit by a falcon, bat, cat, dog, and a goat, but she still loves animals.