Mr. Pettersen has been teaching at Pace for six years. Before the pandemic in 2019, he joined the community as a special education and language arts teacher, and ever since then, he has enjoyed his work as a teacher and as a support system for students.
“I feel more confident in my role as a teacher, and as a parent and partner, it’s amazing,” said Mr. Pettersen.
As a ninth-grade teacher, Mr. Pettersen has held many prior jobs before joining the Pace community. He attended American University and worked in Washington before moving back to New York and working at Columbia as an admissions officer.
“I left Columbia because I felt as though I could do more or better working with the DOE.”
Many students meet Mr. Pettersen during their early years, as he adventures away from Columbia. He finds joy at Pace teaching ninth graders.
“You get a group of ninth graders and you have the opportunity to be able to help them feel safe so that they might feel comfortable taking calculated risks, trying something new, exploring a side of themselves they haven’t explored before” he states.
As a passionate and goal-oriented teacher, Mr. Pettersen’s eagerness doesn’t go unnoticed as he works together with other teachers. He has fostered a community where he encourages students to go out of their comfort zone and adventure literature and art of reading.
He is seen as a local hero to the ninth grade as he expresses his desire to gain meaningful discussion within his classes about books and topics that come up.
“I think that creating an environment where students can read cool and engaging, challenging texts or watch an exciting and bizarre film. Creating that environment where people can feel safe doing this is like enabling them to take the lead they might not be able to take otherwise, a space where students feel safe. It’s cool to play a part of it.”
As he also engages students in his classes and in other grades, he brings his uplifting attitude and overall positivity to his hobbies. “I like to do many things, something I’ve been doing recently is I’ve been training for a marathon. I’m going to run the Philadelphia Marathon in November so this past weekend I logged 18 and a half miles on Saturday morning alone.”
Mr. Pettersen is an enthusiastic teacher who truly gives it his all in everything he does, someone who “doesn’t BS” and gives genuine conversations and advice to students, he is a teacher who would believe in you and tell you straight up.
Fostering a community is difficult. However, for Mr. Pettersen’s case, it is his goal to achieve this safe place to make everyone feel safe to communicate their feelings with “no BS.”
And he advises his students: “You’re doing great, if you are doing your all and trying something you have never tried before, you are doing great.”
