At Home in the World of Education

From Argentina to St. Paul’s School, explore Spanish Teacher Matías Oviedo’s story.

BY IAN ALDRICH

Last summer was a celebratory one for Spanish Teacher Matías Oviedo. For starters, he married his longtime girlfriend, Eun A Jo, an international relations expert and post-doctoral fellow at Dartmouth College, in Jo’s home country of South Korea.

Closer to home, Oviedo marked a different kind of celebration when he helped lead his Concord-area men’s league basketball team to a tournament championship. In sports parlance, Oviedo was the proverbial “glue guy,” a multipurpose teammate who did all the little things that were key to the squad’s win. He grabbed crucial rebounds, dished out important assists, and when his club most needed it, made timely shots.

“I’m a jack-of-all trades, master-of-none sort of player,” he says with a laugh. “I wasn’t the star but I knew what I had to do to help us win and be a good teammate. I’ve hesitated to tell my students about it about it because it’s probably going to sound like some old guy bragging, but it was a lot of fun.”

Oviedo’s versality extends far beyond the court. Since landing at SPS in the fall of 2021, he’s been a crucial member of the Millville community. He chairs the Language Department’s Spanish section, is the head of Wing House, coached the girls JV volleyball and boys basketball teams, will helm the girls JV basketball team this winter and is the lead adviser to the Latinx Society.

“I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues,” Oviedo says. “Everyone strives to improve. I’m lucky because I work with longtime faculty members Jeanne Windsor and Jennifer Hornor, who are just so motivated in their work with the students. You feel that and it inspires you.”

Oviedo has always felt at home in the world of education. The son of a longtime school administrator, Oviedo grew up in the Netherlands and Argentina, where he worked at a high school in his hometown of Cordoba as an assistant to the dean of students while he completed his undergraduate degree in literature.

In 2013, Oviedo traveled to the United States for the first time after he was selected to work as a teaching assistant at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The position offered two important opportunities: The chance for Oviedo to bolster his teaching experience and to explore the United States as a possible destination for a Ph.D. program. It was a success on both fronts and in 2015, Oviedo enrolled at Cornell University to begin a graduate degree in Hispanic literature.

Toward the end of his studies, Oviedo knew that he’d be happy working with high school students again, and at SPS he found an environment that was both familiar and invigorating.

“Everyone impressed me, right from the start,” he says. “They were so intentional and thoughtful about their work, and knew exactly what they were doing. There was passion for education and a professionalism to their work, and that’s not always the case. They also took me seriously and were very kind. I knew immediately it was going to be a good fit.”

And it’s continued to be so. Part of what he cherishes is that every new class, every new school year, brings something different to his work. It’s a kind of unexpectedness that he finds valuable. What is constant, he says, is the curiosity and energy of his students. “I love their questions,” he says. “In college, a lot of times students are thinking about what their peers think. High schoolers have fewer inhibitions. There’s an element of surprise to how they look at the work we do that I love.”

As he scans the immediate horizon, Oviedo is excited about other ways he may become involved in the SPS community. And if he also happens to win another men’s league title or two along the way, he might even tell his students about it.