50th
Ever Onward

A Compassionate Calling

Alice Phillips, science teacher, celebrates 25 years at Trinity
Sunlight beams through the open blinds in the southern exposed windows of Room S-4 in the Science Discovery Center — illuminating the walls, shelves and countertops that hold mementos and keepsakes of a 25-year veteran coach and educator.
 
There is the swim team memorabilia, hand-decorated frames of team photos and “Coach of the Year” plaques; the bins, bottles and baskets of biological specimens; the experimental seedlings for Independent Assessments in Biology SL under grow lights; and a handmade poster from a group of students honoring “Women in Science.”
 
“This is my grandmother,” says Alice Phillips, lifting a framed photograph from her desk in the corner of the room. “Both my mom and her mom and her dad were all teachers.” Descended from a long line of educators, her vocation might have seemed predetermined. Her grandfather was Davis Paschall, the president of William & Mary in the 1960s, and her mother was an English teacher at Hampton Roads Academy in Newport News. “I like writing,” says Phillips. “She would help me with my papers. To this day, I think about her when someone says ‘less’ when they really mean ‘fewer.’”
 
Still, in college, she was convinced she would be an athletic trainer or physical therapist. As she prepared to graduate she found a reference book in the UVA Office of Career Planning called “Independent Schools in the Mid-Atlantic.” She sent her resume off to more than a dozen schools, and Trinity was one of them. 
 
Two First Days
 
Although she interviewed in 1987 to be an English teacher, Phillips was hired to teach science. She advised the yearbook, coached field hockey and track and kept the book for basketball. (That first year, she would coincidentally end up teaching a senior named Amy Baynum, who would later become Amy Chaplin ’88 and go on to work alongside Phillips for the past 15 years advising the Honor Committee.) In 1989, she went back to grad school at UVA for health promotion, but not before meeting fellow teacher and future husband Brian Phillips, now associate head of school in his 39th year at Trinity. 
 
During her years away, she worked in public health and found herself gravitating toward classroom-like environments. “I did corporate trainings, which was like teaching,” she recalls. “I found product development to be like lesson planning, but for adults.” But soon the pull of the classroom and the desire to have the same schedule as the rest of her family brought her back to Trinity in 2002 as a science teacher and swim coach. 
 
She would lead the swim team for the next 17 years, a tenure that included multiple coach-of-the-year honors, two state titles for the boys (2015 and 2016) and three razor-thin state runner-up finishes for the girls in a highly competitive field. “I loved being able to help young people push themselves and be stronger and achieve things that they didn't know they could do,” she said. “Swimming is very technical, so it's fun to see if you can help someone improve their form. But it's also very measurable. So improving your time by a second and a half means something.”
 
Honor and Compassion
 
In addition to teaching Anatomy, IB Biology, Sustainable Systems and more, she was head of the Science Department from 2007 to 2013. But it is her role on the Honor Committee for the last 15 years that has been at once the most behind the scenes, yet possibly the most impactful on the character of the school. Under the leadership of Phillips and co-advisor Chaplin, the Honor Committee has evolved from a more punitive body to a more educational one. 
 
Phillips has seen this evolution since she was a member of her own student honor council in high school. “Kids used to write the same report but change the font, but you would know because the typos were the same,” she remembers. “It's much easier to cheat now than ever. Cutting and pasting or using AI changes the ball game.”
 
Responding to increased parent advocacy, and recognizing the critical importance of student mental health, the committee has recalibrated the role of the students on the Honor Committee — from that of judge and jury to one more like a coach in ethical behavior. “We need to protect our tradition of honor, but reinterpret it and help it serve the community we have now,” says Phillips. She calls the committee's role as “corrective in a more compassionate way.” She affirms that it is still critical to provide the ethical boundaries and guidance, but acknowledges: “We're all human, everyone's going to make mistakes. You just want to see students build character by learning and growing from those mistakes.”
 
A Coach for Teachers
 
Her caring demeanor also extends to mentoring young teachers in her new role as faculty development coach, where she is respected as a wise and trusted listener. 
 
“Alice has such an unexpected sense of humor,” says first-year Trinity science teacher, and roommate in S-4, Amanda Horst. “She can come across as pretty serious at times, so it makes it even funnier when she makes a completely hilarious comment at lunch. She's also incredibly caring. She's had a perfect balance of providing insights on how to best manage student behavior and giving me encouragement that I am doing the right thing in how I'm handling those situations.”
 
Phillips says of her role coaching new teachers, “I don't think there's only one way to be a good teacher.” She encourages them to lean into their individuality and love of the subject matter to forge an authentic connection with students. “Teaching is actually really, really hard to do well,” she says. “Every good teacher struggles between how much to focus on content versus skills versus just creating a meaningful experience with a special group of people.” Phillips credits her predecessor and retired three-decade veteran teacher Marti Truman with imparting the wisdom of how to find that balance. “She always said, the most important thing is to be enthusiastic. And that doesn't mean you have to be a cheerleader, but to bring your natural curiosity to the topic. Because when we're having fun, learning comes naturally.”
 
In return, Truman described Phillips’ teaching style as “one that is rooted in encouraging students to take ownership of their own learning.”
 
Head of School Rob Short praises Phillips for her love of big ideas and her ability to share her wonder and appreciation of the natural world with students. “When she gets enthusiastic about something you can hear it in her voice,” says Short, who also credits Phillips with a “strong environmental moral compass.”
 
Ned Trice has shared lab spaces with Phillips for over a decade. “Alice literally does her dishes,” he says gratefully. “I have seen her offer her space to colleagues who needed a home; I have seen her hand over her classroom for a large tutorial with no notice. She does this all with a smile on her face and a truly welcoming attitude.”
 
Lifelong Learning
 
Also on Phillips’ desk is a family photo including husband Brian, son, Griffin ’18, now an investment advisor in Richmond, and daughter, Madelyn ’15, a health and safety coordinator for a study abroad company in Cambodia. “I’m all about health, and Brian’s all about safety,” Phillips says, “so that fits!”
 
Phillips confesses that she finds herself saying “back in the ’90s” more and more often as she reflects on a quarter century of teaching. “I've often used this symbol of the Galapagos Islands,” she says. “We're all on our little island doing our thing in our classrooms, but we have a lot of freedom and independence and trust. So many teachers come here from other schools and think, ‘Wow, I can just be who I am here!’ I can try a new activity, see how it goes, and no one's going to judge me if maybe it doesn't work out.’”
 
25 years on, Phillips is still reenergizing herself and her classroom with new ideas, whether it's a new field trip destination, new lab or unit. “Far from coasting to retirement, she wants to continue to expand her skillset,” says Head of the Science Department Kasie Kemp. “What I notice most about her is that she is still trying new things, trying to keep up to date with trends in education, as well as revisions in the IB syllabus.”
 
After completing a Permaculture Design Certificate from the University of Richmond, Phillips has been able to incorporate thought leadership in the areas of sustainability and self-sufficient resource conservation into her classes. For years, she has led trips to Polyface Farms, where students have gotten their literal hands dirty learning about these future-ready skills. 
 
Countless students have been able to trace their curiosity about the world — whether it be the biological and natural sciences, environmental stewardship or health and exercise — to their time as students of Phillips. 
 
Nadia Khoury ’15 remembers her classes in Human Biology and IB Sport, Health, and Exercise Science. “She ignited a passion for learning and for physiology that has stayed with me ever since,” says Khoury. “Her ability to make complex concepts accessible and interesting was unmatched. She had a way of blending humor and enthusiasm with serious academic rigor, creating an environment where learning felt natural and exciting.”
 
“Not only did she instill a sense of passion in me for biological sciences but she helped to gently guide me through a period of unexpected adversity in my life that occurred during my time at Trinity,” remembers Logan Glancy ’17. “My high school experience would not have been the same if it weren’t for Mrs. Phillips.”
 
 
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