Education

We are interested in understanding how women and girls in Worcester have experienced learning, both through formal institutions and through life experiences and relationships. This theme includes women and girls’ experiences within, and access to, schools and higher education, as well as other avenues to knowledge and skills.

Sarah Sanders

Teacher, Worcester Public Schools; Columnist, Worcester Magazine/Telegram & Gazette

I think for a long time for me I was so obsessed with doing a good job, and having people tell me I was doing a good job at work, [inhales] that I totally missed the fact that like I didn't have a sense of purpose and so figuring out how to say “no” has been a really huge thing. Having a baby has been a really huge thing, but… coming with some parameters or boundaries for myself. I used to say “yes”  to every writing opportunity because I just wanted to get my writing out there and any chance to get published I'd say “yes.” Now I ask myself okay… does it have to do with education? Does it benefit women? Or does it have to do with like illuminating a cool cultural element of Worcester? And if the answer to those is “no” all three of them, then I say, “No I can't do it.”

Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Sarah Connel Sanders journey embodies a steadfast commitment to education, family, and community engagement. Inspired by her upbringing, Sarah pursued a career in education, becoming a respected educator known for her dedication to her students. Balancing the demands of teaching with the joys of motherhood, Sarah finds fulfillment in nurturing her two-year-old daughter while actively participating in community initiatives and advocacy work. She also is a columnist for the Telegram and Gazette and Worcester Magazine.

Interview Date: 
Tue, 03/26/2024
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Sanders

Patricia Paugh

Professor, University of Massachusetts/Boston

And that's what my book is about and a lot of the work I do with people is about is showing there's a… [gently hits hand on the table] Schools are based on like a model of people working in the factories a long time ago. So, if you're someone that fits into kind of a range of expectations, school works for you, and it's not always the smartest people that school works for. But there's a lot of other people who are very smart that go to school and because they don't fit into that norm, they get sort of othered and it could be that you speak multiple languages, you're learning English, it might be you learn differently.......So, that's one of the things I feel having this network of people I’m able to share things that aren't traditional school and sort of by publishing and by networking and social media now you don't just write a book, you can get out there and I'll be talking to teachers at the Mass Reading Conference at the end of April. So it's you really want to trust teachers and support teachers as much as possible, and also those students that there's no reason they should be thought of as deficient in schools and yet the way schools are structured, they end up that way, like being treated that way.

Patricia Paugh was born in Teaneck, New Jersey in 1956. In 1974 Patricia moved from Long Island, New York to Worcester, Massachusetts to attend college at Assumption College. Patricia graduated from Assumption with a degree in psychology. After graduation she married James Paugh and had her son, Jim who is now 45 with two kids of his own. Patricia eventually went on to further her education; she became a reading specialist at Worcester State University, got her master’s degree in teaching from Harvard University, and received her doctorate from Boston College.

Interview Date: 
Tue, 03/26/2024
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Paugh

Noor Ali

Principal, Al-Hamra Academy

I think that one-dimensional stories are problematic, so I think a good story is a story that is multidimensional, that looks at a person’s lived experience in totality, not just one part of their identity. Like if you were just to look at my experience as a woman, it would be inadequate because one’s lived experience is intersectional. I am a woman who is brown who covers–who is identifiable as Muslim, who is American, who has done a doctorate, who has three kids… so there’s many layers to our lived experiences and I think that’s really important. A lot of the work that I do in my research is around counter-narratives, and I believe that counter-narratives are really important because a lot of times people are like, “If you don’t tell your story, no one will tell your story. Your story won’t be told,” and that’s actually not true. If you don’t tell your story, someone else will. And that’s deeply problematic because when someone else tells your story, it is a hijacked story. It’s telling from their perspective. And in many cases, the stories of minoritized people are whitewashed to fit particular stereotypes or angles, and that’s why I think counter-narratives for minoritized populations are really important and that’s my commitment to the work that I do, is to make sure that those counter-narratives are out there and they’re heard, because we have to tell our own stories, you know, because that’s where the truth lies.

Dr. Noor Ul Sabah Ali was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1980. She attended a Catholic school in Lahore up until high school when she decided to move to South Carolina to attend the College of Charleston for her first year of undergraduate studies. She then moved back to Lahore to attend Kinnaird College, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree, as well as a master’s in literature. Since returning to the United States, she has achieved a second master’s in inclusion education from the University of New England as well as a doctorate in education from Northeastern University.

Interview Date: 
Tue, 03/21/2023
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Ali

Suzanne Simoncini

Special Projects Manager, Tegria Services Group

I was very fulfilled by the work I did as well as by my family life…I have a husband that was very much an equal partner. And I feel like that made a huge difference…We both have a strong Christian faith and having that as our foundation helped to give us strength and guidance along the way.

Suzanne Rice Simoncini was born in 1956 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Suzanne has resided in Worcester for the majority of her life. She grew up on Chandler Street in Worcester, and eventually moved to Park Avenue where she lived with her parents and siblings above the Rice Funeral Home which her father directed for many years. Suzanne graduated from Assumption College and began her career at UMass Medical Center. UMass opened many opportunities to Suzanne and led her to the career she presently enjoys.

Interview Date: 
Mon, 03/14/2022
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Simoncini

Julieane Frost

Senior Marketing Manager, Worcester Art Museum

I have been very lucky that opportunities have presented themselves to me and I have taken them and that has kind of created my path. And it started when I was hired to be the Study Abroad Advisor and Assistant Director of International Programs at Clark University. And in part I was attracted to that job because I'm a first generation American, I had grandparents that lived in Germany, I had visited them. So I had some international experience. And I think I had an affinity for that experience of being new in a place. So, I was hired for that job, and I realized that what I liked the most about that was the communication part, the writing. So, I would write booklets for each of the different study abroad programs in each different country and the customs, what to expect, how to prepare yourself. And so then I left when I had my daughter. And then when she was a little bit older, I took a job at the Higgins Armory Museum. It started out as a staff writing position, and then it evolved into a public relations position. And so that is where I really learned that I love that, I love telling stories. And that's really what public relations is. It's telling stories, and trying to get those stories placed in various outlets so that there's a broad audience for that. That's really what it is.

In this interview conducted in partnership with the Worcester Women’s Oral History Project [WWOHP], we explore the many accomplishments of Julieane Frost. Born in Rutland, MA, in 1959, Julieane grew up enjoying the quiet comforts of a tight-knit neighborhood, including but not limited to the summertime activities offered at the town pool. She graduated from Wachusett High School and furthered her education at University of Massachusetts Amherst with a major in psychology before accepting a job at Brown University.

Interview Date: 
Thu, 03/10/2022
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Frost

Fran Lubin

Director of Volunteers, CASA; School Counselor, Worcester Public Schools; Member, Worcester Institute for Senior Education

So my first job after college, there was a new program that started here that dealt with courts and it was called Court Appointed Special Advocates [CASA] and we were guardians, they call them guardians by law actually, for children in the foster care system who had been abused.  And they really are neglected and they hadn’t really had anybody to speak for them. I was the Director of Volunteers, all were volunteer except for the two paid people, me and the director and we trained them to be advocates, they had to undergo extensive training and then interviews with the kids and everybody involved in the case, write a report, go to court, and it’s still in existence.  It’s a national program, and we started the one in Worcester in 1980 actually, and I was there nine years. That was my first experience, and I did enjoy it, I loved the people. They gave themselves, in a very stressful situation with kids and the courts, very frustrating, but I did love it.

Frances Joan Lubin was born in 1938 in Portland, Maine, where she attended both primary and high school. She then went on to Simmons College to pursue her undergraduate degree in psychology. Fran was married in 1959. She then moved to Worcester, where she would eventually pursue a master’s degree in school counseling at Assumption College and become a social worker.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 10/16/2019
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Lubin

Gabriele Goszcz

Optometrist; Psychiatric Social Worker

Don’t give up who you are to try to please somebody else.

Born in 1947 in Germany, Gabriele Goszcz immigrated to Plainville, Connecticut, with her family when she was six years old and moved to the Worcester area as a grown woman after marriage. She earned her bachelor’s degree and Master’s in Social Work from Smith College, which prepared her for a career as a psychiatric social worker and later, an optometrist. Gabriele expresses her love of helping people as an optometrist. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Worcester Art Museum, and volunteers at Art Reach.

Interview Date: 
Thu, 10/03/2019
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Goszcz

Martha Grace

Chief Justice of the Juvenile Court of the State of Massachusetts; Member of Worcester Institute for Senior Education

I mean, the best thing about becoming a judge, especially a juvenile judge, was I always had, and I still have, a sense of having made a contribution to society and making a difference in people's lives. That was the most—I mean it was impossibly hard. The stories that I heard about children being abused, being sexually abused, being physically abused, seeing kids in front of you having done horrendous things and looking into them and realizing they have no shot in life.  They didn’t understand right from wrong. Yeah, it was, it was a very powerful job. It was hard.

Martha Grace was born in 1940 and raised in Providence, RI attending primary, secondary, and eventually collegiate level schooling in Providence as well. Soon after graduation, she decided to move to Worcester, MA with her husband because of his profession at the time. Shortly after the move, she had two children and was looking forward to continuing her education. After having her first child, and being turned down once already because of their fear of her getting pregnant, she attended Clark University and studied history.

Interview Date: 
Fri, 09/27/2019
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Grace

Melinda Marchand

Professor of History, Clark University

I think that it’s such a great learning experience for me to be interacting with people of your generation and I love teaching.  I teach writing history, I teach U.S history, I teach women’s history and I’m very passionate about my subject matter.  I love my students, I love my subject matter, and my dissertation which is the other element of my job at Clark.  I’m writing an intellectual and cultural biography of a woman who was a 19th century reformer who spent time in Boston and in Worcester which is really cool and I didn’t realize how many synergies there would be when I started working on this project.  But I’m very passionate about that and the things that she tried to accomplish for women that really have been swept under the rug because no one has really ever heard of her. Her name is Caroline Dall.  So, she’s a real character. She really believed that women needed to be empowered to work even more importantly than they needed to be empowered to vote and so she spent a lot of time trying to find ways for women to become professionals in a lot of industries and ways for working-class women to have more fulfilling work themselves. She’s really an interesting character.  

Melinda Marchand was born in 1968 in Newton, Massachusetts. She first arrived to Worcester in 1990 after graduating from Syracuse University and was hired by a company, 440 Financial Group. While working at 440 Financial Group, she attended Northeastern University to obtain a certificate in technical writing and software programming. After this accomplishment, she decided to pursue her master's degree in history. She attended Harvard University's Continuing Education program. After this, she attended Clark University’s Graduate School in the History doctoral program.

Interview Date: 
Mon, 10/22/2018
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Marchand

Caitlin Lubelczyk

Director of Communications and Alumnae Relations, Notre Dame Academy; 40 Under 40 Award from the Worcester Business Journal.

I leave work and I feel good and I can’t wait to go into work the next day. And I love being able to be a part of growing the school, and telling other people about the school, and telling people that they should send their daughters to this school because they’ll get a phenomenal education and they’re going to become strong, independent women. And really it’s a phenomenal place and I’m really happy to be back.

Caitlin Sargent Lubelczyk was born in Worcester in 1982, grew up on Chester Street in 1988, and attended Notre Dame Academy in 2000. Caitlin met her husband in 2008 and she has a daughter named Olivia who is almost eight. She and her husband moved to the Burncoat area and just recently she began working at Notre Dame Academy in 2016 as Director of Communications and Alumnae Relations. In 2016 she was awarded the 40 Under 40 Award from the Worcester Business Journal. Caitlin has made changes in her career that she is grateful for.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 10/03/2018
Interview Language: 
Interview Focus: 
Name Sort: 
Lubelczyk

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Education