Everyone in Westborough High School knows Mrs. Callender as one of our P.E. teachers. She even fits the profile of the typical gym educator: having an athletic build, wearing athletic clothing, and eating healthy foods. What people don’t know is that she didn’t originally even want to teach P.E., let alone be a teacher. Mrs. Callender’s plans were to be a social worker and major in Sociology.

Mrs. Callender was born and raised in Rutland, Massachusetts. She attended her first two years of high school at Wachusett, but then transferred to Tilton School in New Hampshire.

This move, however, wasn’t just any old change. Mrs. Callender had to go from a school of thousands to a school of only about two hundred students. To make matters even more nerve-racking, Tilton was a boarding school. However, Mrs. Callender just couldn’t refuse an offer like this one. Her parents were friends with the athletic director, who helped Mrs. Callender receive a scholarship.

Mrs. Callender has always enjoyed playing sports. In high school, this included field hockey and softball, but one problem arose when she switched schools. Tilton didn’t offer a girls’ softball team. So she had to solve her problem by joining the boys’ baseball team.

One sport that she wishes she had started playing earlier was lacrosse. Mrs. Callender didn’t get into that specific sport until her college years.

Along with lacrosse, she also wishes that she had joined a few clubs or even tried out for a musical (she loves to sing!), but her sports activities took up too much of her time.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Callender was on her way to becoming a social worker and attended her first year of college. It wasn’t until she volunteered with kids that her mind completely changed courses. Mrs. Callender ended up loving to teach children and decided to use her love of sports to express that passion. This led her change in education plans from Sociology to Physical Education.

Mrs. Callender attended three years of school to achieve eighteen credits. At the end of those years, she earned her Master’s Degree and went on to find herself a job at a school. This proved to be easier than she expected.

She took a job at Westborough High School through the connection of Mr. LaDuke. While working as a student teacher, she taught for seven weeks at Fales and another seven weeks at Westborough. During this time, Mrs. Callender had to take skill classes.

Mrs. Callender currently resides in Rutland, Massachusetts where she grew up. She has two children: a ten-year-old boy and an eight-year-old daughter.

She also coaches girls’ lacrosse at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts.

Recently, Mrs. Callender started the Odd Girl Out club in 2010 where she focuses on helping girls resolve conflicts between others. The club was a result of the summer reading book Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons (The book centers around reasoning behind the aggression girls’ exhibit towards each other.)

With all the positive ways in which Mrs. Callender contributes to the WHS community, it’s no wonder she’s a favorite teacher of many!