By Rebecca Polgar ’24

One of the most influential teachers in Sem’s long history is Stephen Ris. He, along with a few other teachers, will be retiring at the end of the school year. When asked about how he felt about his retirement, he spoke about his bittersweet, mixed emotions. Exciting future plans are tainted by sadness of a long career of teaching he’s sad to leave behind.

After teaching for 44 years, Ris has obtained a unique skill to portray straightforward ideas to his students with a passion that means history never gets boring. One of the classes he’s most proud of is one of Sem’s most unique classes. AP Seminar, a combination of American Literature and U.S. History, offers a discussion based class that has a strong emphasis on a higher level of analysis and connects the two subjects to make understanding stronger. He told me he’s seen generations graduate from his classes and move onto bigger and better things.

With the encouragement of Mr. Chace, who teaches the English portion of Seminar, Ris hopes to start writing more poetry once he retires. He also has plans to travel and visit his kids and granddaughters in Seoul, South Korea and Alexandria, Virginia. Among more travel plans are a trip to the American Southwest and Myrtle Beach.

When asked about his impact on students, he said he hopes to help students think for themselves and enjoy the pursuit of discovery of knowledge. He urges students to not sacrifice passion for financial gain when saying, “Do what you love and do it with all your heart, the money will come.” Ris’s last remark, though a cliche one, he retorts, is nonetheless true: “Follow your passion.” Passion is what has driven Ris to do the work he loves, and he hopes students will find that spark that’s all their own, and nurture it.