Lincoln Academy English teacher Bridget Wright sits at her desk in her classroom in Newcastle. A teacher, club advisor, dorm parent, and self-proclaimed crafter, Wright said she hopes a lesson her students will carry with them long after they have left Lincoln Academy is to always be open-minded and curious about the world, and to be brave enough to keep trying. (Piper Pavelich photo)
Despite ending up in the area by chance, Lincoln Academy teacher Bridget Wright chooses to remain here, committed to teaching the next generation to be true to themselves and to not fear the unknown, as the greatest gifts can come from taking a leap of faith.
Born in an area just outside of Chicago, Wright has consistently found where she belongs in new places throughout her life, but the community that Lincoln Academy and the surrounding county offers has been too meaningful for her to ever say goodbye to.
Wright found her place in Lincoln Academy’s community at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. Simply put, the school’s small size and tight knit feeling was a perfect fit.
“I think there’s something really magical about a town academy, where everybody’s choosing to be there, where you have kids from like 17 different sending towns and you have kids from all around the world and everybody’s trying to build this community together, and that’s something really special,” she said.
Wright teaches the students that stroll through Lincoln Academy’s halls lessons about self-expression, self-discovery, and the changing tides of life through her English classes.
“(English) taught me to look at everything as there’s a possible lesson there, and that things will always keep changing, and that that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, even if it’s a scary thing,” she said. “I just really love the way that literature and exploring reading can open people’s eyes, and I love giving my students a chance to figure that out for themselves.”
There’s no question that Wright always knew she would become a teacher. As many children do, Wright spent brief periods of time fantasizing about many career paths, but she has never strayed from her love of teaching, school, and learning. She said she has always appreciated the value of interactions between students and teachers, and the community structure schools bring.
“In second grade, we had to make little Christmas tree ornaments in one of our classes, it was a project they did every year, and you had to say something you enjoyed, and mine said, ‘Bridget enjoys school,’” said Wright. “I’ve just always been really invested in learning new things.”
With her childhood shaped by her experiences living in Illinois, Colorado, and Maine, Wright has learned to look on the bright side of things, saying she tries to find lessons in everything that happens in her life.
“I think (moving) made me learn to carve out spaces for myself and figure out what do I want to do and how do I want to challenge myself, and who do I want to be in a community … I think a lot of people grow up in community and sometimes don’t leave the one they started in, which is really beautiful, but that also means that they don’t get the skill of, how do you join a new one, how do you know what you add, how do you know who you want to be,” said Wright.
Wright admitted that her original vision was to leave Maine for college, the same idea that many students in the state have when it comes time to graduate. However, she decided to attend the University of Maine Farmington. After having what she called an epiphany the moment she stepped on campus, she realized what she truly wanted was to stick around in the state a little longer.
She graduated from the University of Maine Farmington with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, with a concentration in English. She later received a master’s degree in educational leadership from the same university.
Wright took her first teaching job at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, where she stayed for seven years and acted as a dorm parent, a role she currently possesses at Lincoln Academy and a feat she was not particularly prepared for the first time around. However, the unexpected duty has taught her how to be a more empathetic teacher, she said.
“We have a lot of kids who have home lives that are really tough, and in dorm world, kids needs are taken care of … but that doesn’t mean things aren’t hard for them. So, even with all of these resources at my disposal and at their disposal, kids still need a lot of support … Seeing the home side of it as a dorm parent I think just made me more cognizant of like, OK, what’s going on beyond the walls of my classroom and how do I make sure I’m meeting my students where they are,” said Wright.
By day, Wright is a teacher, and by night she is a helping hand to students struggling with topics ranging from homework problems to friendship breakups.
“I always try to make sure the playing field is level, and the kids in my classroom that live with me feel they can come to me with problems or come to me for support, and I want to make sure my other students feel that too, even though I have to play a different role in their life, so I think it’s just made me someone who tries really hard to be the sort of adult that kids can trust, and to find ways to build that trust into my classroom.”
Wright also remains involved in the academy’s community by advising the school’s civil rights team, a role she has taken on at every school she has taught at. A fundamental belief Wright holds is to live as authentically as possible, a lesson she hopes her students will never forget.
“I think the most important thing to me in life is showing up fully as who I am, and we need to give students space to do that, and sometimes they don’t feel like they can, especially as members of marginalized communities,” she said.
Administered by the Maine attorney general, the Civil Rights Team Project is a school-based preventative program with the mission to increase safety of students by reducing biased-motivated behaviors and harassment in schools. The programs help schools think and talk about issues related to to race, gender, religion, disabilities, and sexual orientation.
“Civil rights team is a way for me to try to make my school communities feel safer and more welcoming and more inclusive for all of my students, and it’s also a way to celebrate who our students are and who they discover themselves becoming,” she said.
When she’s not teaching, helping her students with homework in the dorms, or advising the civil rights team, Wright is a crafter and an avid reader.
Her love for arts and crafts stems from her childhood, with her interest forming into a creative outlet for stress in high school. Currently, Wright’s interests are knitting, sewing, painting with watercolors, spinning yarn, and making her own clothes.
“Whether I’m making things, like cinnamon buns for the dorm kids on a snow day or a new sock, teaching is like a very brain-oriented activity for me, so I think I’m really drawn to things where I’m physically producing something outside of my school life,” she said.
Wright has been a veracious reader for as long as she can remember, having shelves of paperback science fiction and fantasy novels in every house she has lived in since childhood.
“I just really love reading because it’s both a way to explore the world around you and also explore the world inside yourself,” she said.
When it comes time for Wright’s students to say goodbye to Lincoln Academy, she said she hopes they are eager to continue learning about the world around them.
“I guess I just hope … they stay open-minded to trying new things, and realizing that sometimes you have to try a new thing a couple times before you enjoy it or it clicks for you, and I just really hope all of my students have that same insatiable hunger that lead me to loving school – find something that you’re interested in and keep pursuing it, and if it isn’t what you want, have the curiosity and the bravery to strike out again,” she said.
Wright resides in the dorms of Lincoln Academy with her husband, Andrew, and their cat, Gheera, 13, and their dog, Huck, 7.
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