After 8 years at the Upper School, Maggie Bowman, SIAC advisor, Track Coach, Cross-Country Head Coach, class of 2025 Grade Dean, World History Teacher, and constant presence will leave the Upper School.
For her, leaving the logistics of the job is not difficult, but rather, it’s leaving the people that have shaped her. “By people, I mean students, colleagues, families, like I love the people at Blake. It’s leaving the people that’s the hard part, said Bowman. She reminisced, “It’ll be really like that’s the part that I’ll miss the most, and then also the part that I’ve enjoyed the most.”
“No matter what role she’s in, she’s always putting students at the center,” said Patrick Barry, friend and colleague of Bowman.
Bowman came to the Upper School after she finished her master’s degree at Yale and a year of partial student teaching. “I was super nervous, even things like writing a full syllabus for the first time was new,” explained Bowman. Despite feeling nervous, Barry emphasizes that just her presence had the greatest impact: “She didn’t ever have to even say anything, just her being there made things better.”
Hunter Simon ‘26 comments on her support and mentorship as a track coach. “She has a very unique cheer, and my parents will sometimes make fun of her because you can always know it’s her…but then in the race, you hear [the cheer] and you know it’s Maggie Bowman.”
Furthermore, Simon praises her ability to make intimate connections with every single person on the team of 30-40 people. A way of doing this is again, simply showing up; after Simon finishes a race, Bowman will still be there congratulating him despite the fact that she doesn’t coach his skill.
“She goes around to every individual person [and] she knows what our goals are and she knows all our times, whereas there [are] other coaches and leaders who may not know the specifics” said Simon, “She’s raised my expectations for what a leader should be…she inspires me.”
Barry adds on to Hunter, saying, “she has just the right balance of seriousness on the one hand…and then on the other side, it’s balanced out with a kind of more relaxed and sometimes goofy demeanor.” Furthermore, Barry continues on her great leadership skills, “in some ways, [she has an] egalitarian style of leadership where it’s not topped down. She wants your voice and she wants people to be leading from within.”
“She cares about everyone here and she’s also very smart. In all her years that I’ve known her, she’s applied 100 percent of herself, so I think we’re lucky to have gotten her” said Simon.
Bowman reflects on her time at Blake, “When I think about my career as a professional, essentially my entire career has been at Blake, so really anything I’ve learned in the professional setting, I learned in this building. I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues…the adults in this building are brilliant.”
Not only does she deeply appreciate the help from her colleagues, but she also feels shaped by the not normally recognized group of people: teenagers. She said, “I love working with teenagers. They teach me things about pop culture in the world, but they also teach me things about what’s important in life.”
Bowman’s next step is to be a private track coach and a Mill City Running coach. Although nervous about the change, Dr. Bowman explained “the ability to pivot and draw something new is really exciting to me.”
Barry ends with, “Blake is better with her given so many roles that she played to students, athletes, colleagues, the institution, the school. Blake will be noticeably less excellent.”
