Astrid Allen

Astrid Allen is a Spanish teacher, the Chair of Judiciary and the new Interim Associate Dean for the Class of 2023. In college, she was an English and Spanish double major, and she enjoys traveling internationally. When she was younger, she liked reading Go Call Alice. Dean Allen also does a Halloween costume with her family every year, and her favorite Halloween movie is “Cabin in the Woods.”

What is your role as an Associate Dean?

I mostly deal with getting to know students, talking with families about attendance, community responsibilities and social, emotional, and academic needs. I don’t know everyone that I’m working with, so I am excited to get to know those kids and see the whole picture of the student, not just from my own Spanish classroom.

What personal qualities do you think will help you with your new job?

I like to get to know people, forge relationships, and build trust with people. I like to come up with solutions to problems where maybe we didn’t see solutions before. I’m also really organized, so staying on top of my responsibilities and making sure that there’s a lot of communication and follow through with the students that I’m working with. I know if a kid contacts a dean, I want to be able to answer that email, say, “I’m here for you, I support you.”

What are your favorite parts of teaching Spanish?

My favorite parts of teaching Spanish are sharing my enthusiasm about my own heritage with students. I grew up speaking Spanish so giving students a view into what it’s like to be a part of the Hispanic community and understand the Latinx and Hispanic community’s role in the United States.

Could you describe your experience with reading Just Mercy?

I felt like I knew things about the inequities that people in our country face, especially around the prison system, but it was a real eye opener about how much I really don’t know. It was shocking to hear the individual stories of people and what is happening even in the present day. I think I thought those things were something that happened 20 years ago or 30 years ago, not realizing that up until the 2010s people were still suffering the way that Stevenson described. It was heartbreaking and a real call to action to me as a current and future administrator about how we treat people with dignity at our school.

So October’s coming up, do you have a favorite Halloween memory?

The teachers are really into Halloween. All the departments compete against each other. One year we did Ghostbusters, and we all dressed up like ghosts or like the Ghostbusters themselves and we did a little show in the cafeteria.