Teacher Spotlight: Mrs. Palerino

    Mrs. Stephanie Palerino has been an English teacher at HAHS since 2007. She worked in many schools including Orange/Ulster BOCES in New York, Solanco Middle School, Columbia Boro Jr/Sr. High, and Spring Grove Area Middle School before finally returning to Hamburg, where she graduated in 1995. 

     Mrs. Palerino’s mother was a special education teacher, and Mrs. Palerino spent lots of time there learning she loved children. Originally she had wanted to be a marine biologist, but her freshman literature class in college, at Millersville had solidified the change. Mrs. Palerino volunteered to tutor local elementary students. She was assigned to a third-grade boy who could not read. She worked with him until he could read his book and understand the story. This experience helped her realize that she loved helping kids to understand literature. 

     Books give someone a way to escape reality. “No matter what type of story you enjoy, there is always one written, she shared ” Books give someone empathy and allow for someone to visit different realities. Mrs. Palerino does not have a favorite author as she believes everything she reads is interesting and reads all genres. 

     Mrs. Palerino loves reading, going to the gym, and gardening. Her family enjoys skiing, kayaking, going fishing at the cabin and biking the rail trails. Mrs. Palerino has two children, her daughter Callie and her son Connor. She also enjoys watching her son play football and throw discus and shotput for spring track, and her daughter plays softball in the spring. 

     Mrs. Palerino comments that coming back to the high school she graduated from was surreal. She was given a warm welcome from her former teachers and ended up taking the room of her former English teacher, Mrs. Hartman.