After over three decades of teaching at Beverly, Ms. Sepideh Sarah Sedghi, a passionate English and history teacher, is retiring to become an author.
Ms. Sedghi came to America in 1978 as a refugee after fleeing a violent revolution in Iran, only understanding Farsi. She had to adapt to American culture and learn the English language.
“I understand the psychology of displacement and having to learn a new language and culture,” Ms. Sedghi said, relating to her international students.
She later became an English language teacher, teaching over two generations of international students. She first started teaching in 1994, when she taught English at Palisades High for a year until getting recruited by Beverly in 1995, and has been here since then.
“I’ve had Ms. Sedghi as my teacher for three years now—two years for History and one year for English. She helped me a lot with learning English since I only spoke Spanish, and she was always available to help me and my classmates with anything we needed, which I greatly appreciated. Thanks to her, I’m a successful English speaker and am doing well in all my other classes,” senior Kaylen Ocheon Leon said.
“English is not just a language; it’s an opportunity,” Ms. Seghi said.
When asked about her favorite memory of this school, she said, “During the first decade at Beverly, at the old auditorium, I enjoyed watching performances by Beverly’s Theatre. It felt like Broadway for me, especially with the fancy sets and props. My favorite musical that they performed was Fiddler on the Roof. I enjoyed those times.”
After retirement, she plans to finish writing her memoir and hopes to publish it someday.
“It has always been my dream to be a published author,” Ms. Sedghi added.
A few summers ago, she was able to submit an excerpt from the memoir she’d written to a writer’s workshop called Aspen Summer Words, run by the Aspen Institute, which is an organization that promotes conversation, literature, and writing from different cultures.
Her memoir is about life as a Jewish person in a Muslim country because she was born in Iran and was a member of the Jewish minority. After the revolution, she lived in the United States as an immigrant.
She hopes to incorporate experiences as a teacher, as a woman, and as an observer of life in many different cultures. So far, she has an outline of the entire book, two and a half chapters, and a working title. The title is “Six Summers and a Snowflake.”
“It’s going to have six chapters about six very important pivotal summers in my life that shaped who I am and how it transformed me from a snowflake to a tough cookie,” Ms. Sedghi said.
“She is a very kind and disciplined teacher who cares about her students. Everyone will miss her,” Mr. Eugene Jackson, a substitute teacher, said.
We will all miss you very much, Ms. Sedghi!
