Teacher’s Pet: Mr. Andy Mazzolini

By Jack McAuslan ’16
THE ROUNDUP

Mr. Donlan’s question from the last edition: Would you rather be a plastic chicken soft taco or an upside down Rhinoceros?

Upside down rhinoceros for sure.  Because I can always get myself up and go charging at things and so forth.

How long have you been teaching?

30 years, this is my 30th year.  Each year is different.

What subject do you teach? 

At Brophy?  I teach chemistry, I teach honors chemistry and AP chemistry.

What is your favorite thing about teaching?

I think that it’s different every day because students are different every day.  So really the students make it interesting and worth while.

What got you interested in teaching?

Good question.  I think what got me into teaching was the work I did in college.  The science work I did in college was very insular so I was alone a lot which drove me nuts.  I was all alone, there was no one to talk to and I was doing research all alone.  The things I was doing sort of in connection to my fraternity and where I was helping high school students was a lot more interesting.  So it became sort of a marriage between two things, which were science and working with people, so I thought teaching would be a good match.

Have you ever taught at a different school?

Ya, so before I came to Brophy I was teaching at All Saints for seven years and then before that I taught for 17 years at Cactus Shadows high school up in Cave Creek.

What did you teach?

Well at Cactus Shadows I taught everything from Earth science to chemistry, and physics. At All Saints I taught life science, and physical science.

What got you so interested in science?

I think curiosity. Curiosity about the things around me, why they work and how they work.  And so science is a natural thing to answer those questions.

What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Probably equally hiking and reading.

What is your favorite sports team?

I’ll have to say the Cardinals, because you know we’re in Arizona.  Although I like the U of A Wildcats too.

What is your favorite place that you have ever visited?

I’m not a very exotic person.  I think Washington D.C.  I lived outside of D.C. and going back and visiting it when we went back about 10 years ago and walked around and stuff it was really a deep city.  It’s got a lot of history in it.  It was very cool.

Would you like to pose a question for the next edition?

Yes. Would you rather have a prehensile tale or insect wings?