By Laura Skinner and Jordan Linden

New England native, Melissa Callender, started her involvement in Westborough Public Schools in 1996, when she began student teaching for Westborough High School’s very own Mr.Rota. She then continued her work at Hastings and Fales and finally found herself as a physical education instructor at Westborough High School.

Mrs.Callender didn’t always want to be a gym teacher. She attended Hartwick College in New York where she majored in Sociology and after studying abroad in Spain, which she believes to be one of the best experiences of her life, minored in Spanish. She later attended Springfield University to receive her Masters degree in Physical Education. Though Mrs.Callender’s studies were very important to her, she had another passion while in college: sports. Mrs.Callender not only played field hockey, basketball and softball, but was recruited by her field hockey coach to play lacrosse. Mrs. Callender’s involvement with lacrosse in college is what brought her to help create the first Westborough High School Varsity lacrosse team in 1999.

Outside of school, Mrs. Callender loves to ski and wishes she had lived in Utah for some time to be a “ski bum”. To keep her ski dreams alive, Mrs. Callender takes on another job at Wachusett Mountain as a member of the ski patrol. And, because she’s a gym teacher, she must love being active, right? That’s true, and one of the things she hopes to bring to Westborough High School is the motivation to stay active and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Though Mrs. Callender has not always wanted to be a gym teacher, she has found a love for the profession,students and school. She says that she is a “firm believer that things happen for a reason”. Mrs. Callender hopes that kids will enjoy high school and, in the future, look back at high school gym class as a happy and fun experience.

Mrs. Callender’s advice to students, “It’s hard to do, but don’t dwell on things that bring you down. After high school, it will be insignificant.”