By Vanessa Bein

Westborough High School Spanish teacher, Anna Ventriglia, is an inspiration to many students. Retiring this year, Señora Ventriglia is teaching Spanish III Honors, Spanish for the Business Minded, and Conversational Spanish. She has been teaching for twenty years overall, fourteen of those years in Westborough and six years in other various towns. She taught at Gibbons Middle School for five years, and has been teaching at the High School for nine years.

Growing up, Mrs. Ventriglia’s favorite childhood memory was visiting her grandparents in Italy. She had many responsibilities when she was in high school, including various factory jobs she had almost every day after school. After graduating high school, she attended Framingham State College to major in elementary education. After being there for a couple semesters, she decided that the major was too saturated and there were too many graduates. After dropping that major, she decided to major in Spanish. She then moved to Spain and attended the University of Valencia. After attending the University of Valencia, she was transferred to the University of Madrid. One of the best memories Señora Ventriglia has of Spain was teaching English at the Institute in Madrid. She made a lot of friends and especially loved the experience of Spain. Mrs. Ventriglia also enjoyed traveling to La Mancha, Spain to see the famous windmills. She loved the traveling to La Mancha because of the inspiration of Don Quixote, a famous herotic character whose main quest in life was to devoid chivalric virtues and values.

In Señora Ventriglia’s spare time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, reading, and spending with friends. She has traveled to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Spain. At one point in her life, she really would want to go to Australia to visit her cousins. She spends lots of time in the kitchen and outdoors gardening; she recently joined the Westborough Garden Club. Mrs. Ventrilglia and her husband are famous in Westborough for their brick oven in their basement. The Westborough News even wrote an article on the Ventriglia’s brick oven in the fall of 2008. They decided to build a brick oven in their house as a trial for Mr. Ventriglia’s Mansonry’s business. The couple were inspired by this type of cooking by their visits California and the taste of the food that came out of it. The couple has plans in the air to start promoting a business in the New England area for brick ovens. She loves the fact she has a brick oven because she believes that, “you bring people together when you cook – – for food, fun, and the brick oven is definitely a focal point.”

Mrs. Ventriglia is married and has a son, Mark (age 19). She believes the turning point of her life was having her child because it was very moving. She loved how her son depended on her so much. She stated, “You feel the love pour out of all of your pores.” Mrs. Ventriglia likes teaching at the high school level because she sees more of a variety of maturity and she believes each grade brings different things to the table. She believes that the best part of teaching is seeing the “Ah ha!” moments. She loves feeling that moment when students grasp the material she has taught. When asked what one of the most important concept is to her, she replied with, “The most important thing is that one should only be inspired by happy people – – and to be happy to inspire others. It’s all about happiness and joy.” “In the end,” she states,” I would want everybody to seek the meaning of true happiness. That resolves everything.”