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Malden High School House Principal Charles settles in at new position

Ewald Charles
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A native of Haiti, MHS administrator impressed with students’ access to advanced educational opportunities

  Malden High School’s newest addition to the administrative team is Ewald Charles, who began working in his new position over this past summer and has been serving as Brunelli House Principal since the start of the school year in September.

  Charles grew up in Haiti, but he came to the United States at the age of 18. From there, he attended public high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., and then moved on to Alfred University in Alfred, N.Y. Just five years after his arrival in the United States, he then made a major move when he transferred into Columbia University, of the prestigious Ivy League. After Columbia, he moved on to medical school, although shortly after that, Charles said, he decided to go into teaching and earned his Master’s in Education from Framingham State University. He began his career teaching physics and biology at a high school in Church Point, Louisiana.

  Charles was not always planning on being a teacher. However, during his college years, one of his teachers got him interested in teaching Biology. He then began working in Brooklyn with “inner city kids, whom people often marginalize and don’t think are successful.” He taught one girl named Amanda who he is “never going to forget”; she passed the High School Regent Exam (the New York equivalent of the MCAS) at the age of 10 with an 86. Being able to work with her made him feel as though he could “do something in education and work with kids.”

  MHS Principal Christopher Mastrangelo recalled that Charles originally interviewed for a similar MHS position in 2019, but instead was hired as an assistant principal at the Salemwood K-8 School. Mastrangelo said he feels that being an immigrant who moved to the United States makes Charles “relatable to a lot of our students, not just from Haiti but from any country.”

  Above all else, Mastrangelo said that he (Charles) is “so calm and kind in his approach to students,” and his interactions are outstanding “because he cares.” Mastrangelo added that Charles is fluent in four languages and the fact that he was on track to becoming a medical doctor speaks for itself.

  Charles stated that so far he is very pleased with his Malden High experience. “There’s a great population of students here, and the diversity is amazing,” Charles said. “It’s almost as if there’s something I’m looking for up in the sky, and I’ve found that here.”

  Charles also said that he loves the structure of the school and the accessibility of all students to available forms of higher learning. He said he believes that it is important that kids have “access to AP classes, honors classes” and that all of the students get the same opportunities. “There are some classes that you walk in, and you see that the discussions that are taking place are getting students ready for college,” Charles said.

  During his first few weeks, he recalled, an MHS student would routinely check in on him to see how he was doing. Charles said, “It brought tears to my eyes a little bit, because she cared so much.” Charles added that the Malden High student population is “so nice, genuinely nice and respectful,” making MHS a great place to work.

Carlos Aragon is a reporter and photographer for The Blue and Gold, the Malden High School student newspaper. This is a version of a story appearing in The Blue and Gold.

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