Severn School's Online News Source
  The Anchor
  • Front Page
  • Severn News
  • Athletics
  • Profiles
  • Opinion
  • Archives
    • Athletics >
      • Severn Sports >
        • Women's Athletics >
          • Women’s Lacrosse 2019: A Look Ahead with Coach DeFalco
          • New Beginnings: 2018 Admirals Girls’ Basketball
          • Severn Admirals Girls Varsity Soccer 2018
          • Mariah on the Wrestling Team
          • Admirals Field Hockey 2018: A Fall Preview
          • Girl's Basketball: Interview With Jorryn Avery
          • Girls’ Varsity Soccer 2017: Interview with Michelle Money
          • Interview With Girl's Varsity Tennis Captain Jane Huang
          • Spotlight of the Four Super Seniors of Severn Girl’s Tennis
          • Inside the Varsity Field Hockey Team of 2016
          • Girl's Cross Country Preview
          • Girls Field Hockey preview with Josie Formica
          • Spotlight of the Four Super Seniors of Severn Girl’s Tennis
          • Girl's Cross Country Preview
        • Men's Athletics >
          • Boys Lacrosse Preview: MIAA A-Conference Underdogs?
          • ​Golf Preview: The Admirals are Looking to Continue Their Dominance
          • A Whole New Ball Game for Severn Baseball
          • Ready for a Shot: Admirals Wrestling 2018-19
          • Admirals Football 2018 Season Preview: A Return to the Championship?
          • Preseason Preview: Severn Men's Varsity Basketball
          • Interview With Varsity Football Captains
          • Men's Varsity Basketball Interview
          • Severn Mens’ Soccer 2017: an interview with Devin McCarthy
          • Boys Cross Country Preview
      • Co-ed Athletics >
        • A Successful 2019 Season for Admirals Swim Teams
        • Admirals Cross Country 2018
      • Sports in the News >
        • Opinion on the NCAA FBI Investigation
        • Annapolis Junior Rowing: a Glimpse
        • How I Found the Meaning of Veterans Day Through Field Hockey: Our Trip to Arlington Cemetery
    • Profiles >
      • Faculty >
        • Meet the New Teachers: Mr. DeMarte
        • Meet the New Teachers: Mr. Otero
        • Meet the New Teachers: Mr. Freeman-Coppadge
        • Meet the New Teachers: Mrs. Lapolla
        • What's Happening with Ms. Campbell?
        • Getting to Know. . . Ms. Beccarelli
        • The Real Scoop on Mrs. Shannon Maury
        • Get to Know the New Teachers: Mr. Campuzano
        • Football and Teaching: How one can Boost the Other
        • Getting to Know the New Faces at Severn: Mrs. Coughlin
        • Getting to Know… Mr. Starr
      • Students >
        • Earth Week at Severn!
        • Prom Committee Interview
        • Artist Spotlight: Annika Jensen
        • Jam Band Interview
        • Student Spotlight: Interview With Lorenzo Hu
        • Back to School Art Show Review
      • Extended Community >
        • Freedom from Chemical Dependency: Questions for Mr. Poole
        • Unveiling Teenage Pressures with Dr. Lisa Damour
    • Severn News >
      • Arts >
        • Musician in Residence 2019: Creative Connections
        • The Winter Musical: Once Upon a Mattress
        • Open Mic Night Review
        • The Fall Play: The Crocodile
        • Chaplin
        • Musician in Residence 2018: Ball in the House
        • One Man Two Guvnors
      • Community/Events >
        • Hoops Madness 2019: Unity through… Basketball?
        • The 2018 Spanish Exchange Program
        • Reflections on the French Exchange Program
        • Ciao amici! The Severn – Lunardi Italian-American exchange program
        • The Washington Capitals Win the Stanley Cup. . . and the Cup visits Severn!
        • Super Bowl
        • Hoops Madness
        • Severn Welcomes the Maasai
        • Spirit Week Food Drive and Spotlight on the Severn Service Society
        • The VOTES Project at Severn: Election 2016
        • Out for the Darkness and into the Light
        • Check Out These Clubs!
        • A Syrian Refugee family comes to Severna Park
        • Linda's Legacy
        • Stranger Things Season Two Review
        • An Almost-Revolution: The Attempted Coup in Turkey
      • Academics >
        • It's Academic: Close Competition
        • A Trivial Competition: Anything But
        • One River, Many Streams: Unity Day
        • Reflection on Unity Day 2019
        • Unity Day's Virtuous Cycle
        • Unity Day
        • Settling Into Freshman Year: Thoughts From the Class of 2022 ​
        • A Look at the Freshman Class
    • Opinion >
      • The Best A Man Can Be: Opinion on a Controversial Ad
      • Why Protest?
      • 2018 Midterm Election Results
      • The Kavanaugh Confirmation: #IBelieveHer
      • The Kavanaugh Confirmation: Dr. Ford Was Exploited
      • Conflicting Views on Colin Kaepernick and Nike ​
      • Controversy at the U.S. Open: Serena Williams ​
      • The Importance of Diversity of Thought
      • Women's March on Washington
      • President Trump's Accomplishments
  • The Staff

Meet the New Teachers: Mr. Freeman-Coppadge

By Caity Reiter '21

​This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of our new English teachers, Mr. Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge, or Mr. FC for short. Mr. FC went to St. John’s College just down the road in Annapolis and developed a passion for teaching at a young age.
Picture
Caity Reiter: Where did you grow up? 
Mr. FC: I grew up in north-central Pennsylvania in the middle of nowhere in a town of 500 people. My public school graduating class was 54. 
 
CR: Where did you go to college? 
JFC: I went to St. John’s College in Annapolis, which was the perfect fit for me. I really wanted the academic and intellectual curiosity that I didn’t get in high school. I wanted to read the great books that have shaped the western world and I wanted to grapple with the big questions. That is what St. Johns is all about.  
 
CR: What sports/clubs/extra-curricular activities did you do in high school and college? 
JFC: In high school, I was very involved with music and theater. I was also involved in our Christian fellowship group and National Honors Society. Outside of school I got involved in an organization called the Hugh O’Brian Youth leadership organization--HOBY for short. It pulled high school sophomores from across the state and across the nation for four-day conferences on leadership and service. It became a big part of my life. I actually continued volunteering with that organization for fifteen years. In college I was involved again with Christian fellowship, some of the theater productions, and I formed an acapella quintet that performed for a few years.  
 
CR: Have you taught at any other schools before Severn? What are they like compared to Severn? 
JFC: I started my full-time teaching career at Indian Creek School. I was there for five years and then I moved to Massachusetts for my husband’s doctoral program. I taught at Groton School, which is a boarding school in rural Massachusetts about an hour outside of Boston; I was there for five years as well. Indian Creek is obviously more similar to Severn than Groton in a lot of ways. If I had to compare them I would say I find the same level of excitement between Indian Creek students and Severn students--in general people are really happy to be students here, which is great. One of the big differences between Severn and Groton was that because Groton was a boarding school, you saw your colleagues and students all the time. You saw them from 8 a.m. until 10:30 or 11:00 at night, sometimes later. There are ways in which that was wonderful--it means that every moment was a learning moment--but there were ways in which that was hard.  
 
CR: What made you want to start teaching? 
JFC: It was the teachers I had in high school. When I was in high school, I thought my high school English teachers had the best job I could imagine. They got to read great books and they got to talk about literature with people who were interested in it and who cared about it, and they got to do it for a living. That was awesome to me. [They] were my mentors and … the people I trusted. I went to them to talk about the things that were bothering me in life because we had already talked about the big questions and big problems in the books we were reading. 
 
CR: Do you have any pets? Kids? 
JFC: I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son named Langston, whom many of the students met at the frosh-soph picnic. Hopefully he’ll be a Severn student next year. I also have a dog, an Australian Shepherd and Bernese Mountain Dog mix; she’s twelve years old and her name is Lacey. 
 
CR: Do you have any hidden talents? 
JFC: I can play piano passably and I sing; I have sung for a number of years. I also write--writing is my main creative outlet right now. 
 
Please stop by Creeden 306 if you have any more questions for our new English expert! 
Proudly powered by Weebly