Rosanna Antonelli M’26 knows firsthand how important ESL teachers are. That’s why she’s studying to become one herself.
Antonelli’s parents had her shortly after they immigrated to the U.S. from Italy. At home, she was raised to speak Italian as her parents, aunts and uncles all spoke the language.
“In kindergarten, the teachers didn’t know how to speak any language other than English,” Antonelli said. “My father spoke three languages, but he had to go to work so he didn’t have much time to teach me. We didn’t have any ESL teachers, so I had to learn by immersing myself in the English language.”
Nowadays, as an academic support for first and second-grade special education at Silver Hill Elementary School in Haverhill, Mass., Antonelli works with many students whose primary language is Spanish.
“We have a lot of immigrants coming in and I know what it’s like to be in their position, coming up in a different culture,” she explained.
Antonelli is currently one of the 10 Haverhill Public School (HPS) educational support personnel enrolled in a Merrimack College fellowship. The program allows select HPS ESP staff to pursue a master’s degree at no cost.
“There’s the special education track, the general education track and the ESL track, which I chose,” Antonelli explained. “The first class I took was about inclusive classrooms and how to design a lesson plan and use standards from DESE. Throughout the last semester, we had to do a practicum working under the tutelage of another teacher. I could do it right in the school I work at, so it made it really easy to navigate.”
It had been a while since Antonelli was in the classroom. She received a bachelor’s degree in child developmental psychology at Suffolk University in 1992. While Antonelli hoped to land a job as a guidance counselor, she was offered a brokerage job right out of college.
After decades in the financial industry, she decided to pursue a job that best fit her degree and in 2012, she started working at Silver Hill.
“I had some inhibitions on how I would do (back at school),” she said, “but I guess I love to learn because I really enjoy it. I enjoy the professors here and the schedule is great. It inspires me to want to go further after I get my masters.. Maybe even get a Ph.D. in linguistics. I want to learn about how the brain processes a different language other than the native language.”
Funnily enough, Rosanna isn’t the only Antonelli studying at Merrimack. Her son, Marcus Antonelli ‘25, is expected to graduate this spring semester with a bachelor’s in communications.
“I’m so proud of him,” she said. “ He worked hard, delved into the community on campus and got involved in every aspect of the communications department. He also plays club lacrosse and built great friendships with so many students.”
