Hollis Montessori opened in 2008 with classes for children age 3 through 6th grade. In 2011, we added the Adolescent Program for grades 7-9. As a young school, we have fairly young alumni, but after 17 years, some of our alumni have become adults. Over several Observer issues, we have been featuring stories about them in our “Where Are They Now” series. In Part Three, we talked to Elena Longan.
Elena left HMS in 2015, and after high school, she went to the University of New Hampshire and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. After she graduated, she “felt unsure of my next career steps.” Although she thoroughly loved her degree and the classes she took, she had always had a yearning to work with young children. “Naturally,” she says, “Montessori was the only path in which I could see myself doing this.”
While she had experienced Montessori education firsthand, she wanted to be sure that a guiding role would suit her before enrolling in a diploma course. So she spent her first year after college as a Children’s House Classroom Assistant at Concord Montessori School in Concord, MA. The year she spent there was “joyful and fulfilling, and just the push I needed to fully commit myself to pursuing an AMI 3-6 diploma.”
Pictures from Elena’s training center in Portugal
AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) is a global pedagogy, which is applicable across cultures, and feeling that it was personally significant for her to experience this resounding aspect of Montessori, Elena decided to pursue her diploma in Portugal. She happily says that “I have had an amazing cultural experience as my classmates are from all walks of life and within our group of 16 students we represent 9 nationalities.” Her training center is in a “delightful little town” on the Portuguese coast called Ericeira. Ericeira is close to Lisbon, and Elena has enjoyed exploring the capital with her classmates.
Children’s art from École Montessori School Paris
As part of an AMI training course, students are required to visit other Montessori schools for observation and student teaching. Last fall, Elena spent time doing just that Hollis Montessori in Carla Carney’s Children’s House classroom. She thoroughly enjoyed it, since she’s known Ms. Carla since she first started at HMS. This spring, Elena has had opportunities to observe and student teach at École Montessori School Paris, and Ma Petite École Montessori, also in Paris. She says that has been an incredible experience to see Montessori schools outside of America in which the language and certain customs may differ but the pedagogy is constant and familiar.
The beach near her training center
Although she does not speak French, many French Montessori schools are bilingual. Typically, one guide in the classroom always speaks French, and the other always speaks English. The children come from a variety of language backgrounds and there is a variable degree of English/ French comprehension and speaking among the children (as well as other languages such as Spanish, Italian, and German that are common between some children). Elena notes that while “the children were quick to realize that I can not understand French,” they made various efforts through body language, “or the help of ‘translator’ classmates to interact with me.” This experience showed her that it is “really quite amazing to see the powers of children' s language acquisition at work.”
Elena at a picnic with her classmates
In her free time she is enjoying local restaurants, markets, beaches, and yoga studios. When the weather in Portugal warmed up, she started soaking in the sun and relishing her remaining time abroad with her fellow trainees.
Elena feels that her Montessori background has completely influenced her current life in the most positive of ways. She is “so so grateful to have had a Montessori education at HMS, and I have only fond memories of my time spent there.” She believes that she would not be the same person without having had the opportunity to be a part of our vibrant community.
After moving on from HMS, she found a big difference in the approach to later studies and learning between herself and many of her peers. Her lifelong love of learning, exploring, and seeking new experiences are all a part of who she is today, and she believes that these qualities would not have flourished in a traditional school setting. “Looking back at my HMS years, I felt excited to go to school every day, make new discoveries, dive deep into my interests, and express myself and my accomplishments creatively. I am eternally grateful to all of my HMS guides whom I continue to look up too and do my best to embody each day.”