By Mati Davis, Staff Writer
Dr. Melissa Noel has joined the General Studies faculty this year, bringing teaching experience, a cheerful personality and bit of the Caribbean to the Science Department.
With a soft-spoken, Spanish-accented voice and calm demeanor, Dr. Noel describes herself as “someone who likes to get to know her students and bond with them and know them as people.”
She is currently teaching 10th and 11th grade Biology, 12th grade Physiology and a 9th grade Advisory.
Originally from San Juan on the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea, Dr. Noel said she likes and visits her hometown sometimes but doesn’t feel homesick.
Once she finished university in San Juan, she thought about going to a music school for flute, but instead got a PhD. in neurobiology. Then she sought out a job as a science teacher on the East Coast. She spent three years teaching in New York at Bronx Bridges High School and the Collegiate Institute for Math and Science, and in New Jersey at Bard High School Early College before flying to Los Angeles to be interviewed for Shalhevet.
Dr. Noel told The Boiling Point that her first impression of Los Angeles was how much nicer the weather is here than in her hometown. As many people know, Puerto Rico has tropical weather, which can be brutally hot as well as humid and stormy sometimes.
She also admires the “feel” of Los Angeles.
“People seem to be more courteous than they are in New York,” Dr. Noel said. “So it feels nice… to talk to people who are kind and respectful.”
When she is not working, Dr. Noel likes to sew and knit clothing and travel the world.
Overall, Dr. Noel said, everyone at Shalhevet is welcoming and she is looking forward to this coming year.
