St. Bernard’s New Faculty and Staff

Grade II Associate
 

 

Snigdha Baduni grew up and started her career in India.  She pursued her undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of Delhi and a master’s in elementary education from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.  She recently graduated with a second master’s in learning sciences and technologies from the University of Pennsylvania.  She joins us with rich international professional experience in education, having spent four years teaching kindergarten and upper elementary and two years working on teacher selection and coaching.  Snigdha's goal as an educator is to create responsible, aware citizens who are lifelong learners and hopes to develop a love for learning by making learning more personalized and inter-disciplinary for her students.  She is really excited to start her first year at St. Bernard's and hopes to collaborate and learn from her amazing colleagues.

 

 

Kindergarten

Robyn Clery grew up in Tarrytown, New York.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in early childhood education from Manhattanville College.  She began her teaching career at The Stanwich School in Greenwich and taught at Hackley School in Tarrytown before working at The International Preschools in Manhattan for eight years as a head teacher in junior kindergarten.  She implemented a gardening program for the school, teaching lessons on gardening, sustainability, and the environment to children of all age-levels and working with the students to create and maintain a rooftop garden.

 

Ms. Clery truly enjoys activities that bring her into nature, including hiking, trail-running, photography, stand up paddle boarding, and gardening.  She is fond of anything artistic and creative.  She sings, plays piano, writes music, and recently has been taking courses on watercolor painting.  Ms. Clery is thrilled to begin this next chapter at St. Bernard’s and to join this very special community.

 

 

Mathematics
 

Dana Feigenbaum grew up in New York City and was graduated from The Spence School.  She continued on to Middlebury College and received a B.A. in international studies.  She moved back to New York and after a brief stint at an advertising agency, decided to pursue her love of teaching, and went to Bank Street College of Education.  She received an M.S.Ed. in childhood education and worked at The Town School for ten years.  She taught second grade, fourth grade, and then began to specialize in mathematics for the fourth grade team.

 

Dana returned to Bank Street for another master’s in math leadership.  Dana devoted the last few years to private math tutoring, while enjoying her time at home with her two young daughters.  They are now both incoming second grade and kindergarten students at Spence.

 

In her spare time, Dana loves reading, playing tennis, and just spending time with her family.  Dana is looking forward to joining the St. Bernard’s community and sharing her love of mathematics with the boys.

 

 

Grade IV

Peter Kiok is a native New Yorker. His undergraduate years were spent at Hobart College and he holds a master’s from the Bank Street College of Education.  Although Mr. Kiok has taught kindergarten through fifth grades, the last nine years have been spent teaching fourth grade, a level he particularly likes.  He has worked at several schools in Manhattan, including Browning, Buckley, and St. David’s.

 

Mr. Kiok also taught at a bi-lingual international school in Rome for four years.  During that time he studied Italian, becoming almost but not quite fluent, and traveled extensively throughout Italy.

 

In the classroom, Mr. Kiok’s aim is to foster an environment of trust and mutual respect, where students feel welcomed and valued, where they are encouraged to take an active role in the learning process, and where different learning styles are accepted and appreciated.

 

A member of the Blue Hill Troupe, an amateur theatrical company, Mr. Kiok enjoys directing musical plays, and has directed several school productions, sometimes even writing his own lyrics.  In his spare time, Mr. Kiok enjoys playing tennis and running in Central Park.  He also spends time in western Massachusetts, where his family has a house.  Mr. Kiok is very excited to be working at St. Bernard’s and is looking forward to sharing stories from his days in Rome with the boys in his class.

 

 

Director of Communications
 

 

Caroline Macdonald grew up in Washington, D.C., where she attended the Potomac School.  She was graduated from Duke University with a degree in history.  After working in finance at Lazard Asset Management, Caroline went on to Columbia University for her M.B.A., concentrating in real estate finance and social enterprise.  Upon graduating from business school, Caroline worked at Brookfield Properties, a real estate firm, for several years.  In addition to real estate, her interests include urban planning and historic preservation.

 

Caroline is married to Old Boy Ian Macdonald ’91 and their son Harry ’25 is a current St. Bernard’s student.  Caroline and Ian also have a daughter in kindergarten at Brearley.  Caroline has served in various volunteer roles at St. Thomas More Play Group and at St. Bernard’s.  She is delighted to join the development office.

 

 

Science

 

 

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, to two Polish immigrants, Mark was raised in a household where academic performance and hard work were ingrained in him at an early age.  In his youth, Mark began playing drums and ice hockey, both of which became lifelong passions that instilled in him discipline along with a growth mindset that he shared by delivering his first of many drum lessons at the age of 16.

 

Mark was accepted into the mechanical engineering program at Northeastern University in 1992, however, he decided to follow his passion for music by switching his majors going on to receive a bachelor's of science degree in business and music.  He toured and recorded as a professional musician while operating a private teaching practice for percussion studies for several years before opting to become a New York City Teaching Fellow thus completing his master’s in education in the areas of general and special education at Pace University.  He served students with moderate to severe autism in the New York City Public Schools.

 

In 2015, Mr. Manczuk took advantage of an opportunity to continue his work in music by accepting the position of head instructor of percussion at the bachelor's program at the Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music in Los Angeles, California.  In 2017 he moved back to New York City where he found that his experience of drought and wild fires in Los Angeles had triggered an interest in climate change hence a rekindling of a passion for science.

 

Mark Manczuk has an internationally published drum course, and a DVD for inspiring young drummers, and holds a Level 4 USA Hockey coaching certification.  Mark enjoys mentoring young goaltenders, tending goal in local leagues, and practicing tabla (Hindustani drums), but his most cherished moments are experienced with his daughter, Anoushka.

 

Mathematics

 

 

Kendall Mitchell was born and raised in Georgia, where he attended a small liberal arts college in Albany, Georgia.  He then moved to Philadelphia to attend graduate school in neuroscience.  Afterwards, Kendall moved to Washington, D.C. to do research at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and a neighboring medical school (USUHS).  While there, Kendall was given an opportunity to train and teach graduate and medical students in various aspects of neuroscience, which sparked his interest in teaching as a career.

Kendall shifted careers upon moving to New York City in 2014.  He began teaching middle and high school math and science, most recently at Professional Children’s School.  Kendall also enjoys tutoring students in math.

In his free time, Kendall likes to spend time with his wife and two children, eat various ethnic foods, play and watch sports, and discuss politics with his son.

Technology Integrator
 

 

William Rachmiel grew up in New York City.  He attended Xavier High School and majored in Philosophy at St. John’s College and Drew University.  William comes to St. Bernard’s from Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School where he instructed middle and high school students in all things technological.  Prior to that, he traded corporate bonds on the floors of the American and New York Stock Exchanges and was an information technology consultant across various industries, including finance, labor, law and education.  He enjoys cooking, gardening and working on his 1969 Pontiac LeMans.  Mr. Rachmiel is looking forward to being a part of an institution with such a long and rich history.

 

 

Assistant Librarian

 

 

A lifelong reader and lover of children’s literature, Kate Reid grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where she attended an all-girls school for ten years and developed a deep appreciation of the benefits of single-sex education.  While at the University of Richmond, she majored in history and French and studied at the Université de Fribourg in Switzerland for her junior year.  Her career in education began after graduation when she worked at Collège du Léman in Switzerland.  She went on to obtain a master’s degree in Modern European Intellectual History from Washington University in St. Louis.

 

As the proud parent of two Old Boys, Buford ’13 and Walker Reid ’16, Ms. Reid happily volunteered for many years in the St. Bernard’s library.  In fact, Mr. Schwartz served as her inspiration to study for her Master in Library and Information Science (MLIS) at Rutgers University.  Ms. Reid served as a librarian at The Allen-Stevenson School here in Manhattan for the last four years.  She is thrilled to be back at St. Bernard’s and to share her passion for reading with the boys.  One way that she remains abreast of the best newly published children’s books is by writing book reviews for School Library Journal.

 

In addition to listening avidly to audiobooks and reading as much as possible, Ms. Reid loves the outdoors and going on family hikes.  She enjoys running—her children call it slow jogging—playing tennis, doing puzzles, travelling, and solving the New York Times crossword puzzle.  She looks forward to welcoming boys and their parents in the library.

 

 

Grade I Associate

 

 

Caroline Schoen grew up in New York City where she attended The Nightingale-Bamford School.  Caroline was graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a degree in psychology and education.  While student teaching in North Carolina, Caroline realized that teaching was her passion.  Upon graduation, she returned home to New York City to begin her teaching career.  Caroline spent two years as a kindergarten teacher at a charter school in Brooklyn while simultaneously working towards her master’s degree.  In September, Caroline will graduate from the Relay Graduate School of Education with an advanced degree in elementary education.  Caroline loves cycling, swimming, and walking her two Golden Retrievers in Central Park.  Caroline is beyond excited to join the St. Bernard’s community and is excited to work with Grade I boys.

 

 

Grade II
 

 

Cheryl grew up in a small town in upstate New York.  She came to New York City for her B.A. in English Language Arts at Hunter College.  It was through this work at Hunter that she developed a love of creative writing.  She later earned a master's degree in childhood education from Pace University while working as an assistant teacher for pre-k students.  This led to her work as an associate teacher at Ethical Culture teaching kindergarten and first grade.  Then most recently, she taught first grade at Trinity School for two years.  Cheryl enjoys creative writing, art, cooking, and city exploration.  She is very excited to be joining the St. Bernard's community.