The 2023-2024 year has brought in some new teachers this year at HSTAT. Let’s get to know them!

Ms. Golonka

Ms. Golonka is a new 11th grade English teacher of HSTAT who moved to New York from Chicago for the friendly community and to be closer to friends and family. Having studied English and filmmaking, she originally did not want to teach, but because she had a supportive teacher herself, she was encouraged to take on the role of inspiring and nurturing young students.

Beginning at 21 years old, teaching became a lifelong passion for Ms. Golonka who loves to connect to her school communities.  Her goal is to be able to help students feel like they’ve grown from the beginning of the year to the end – not only in academics, but on an emotional and technical level as well.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have many teachers in my life who pushed me when I wanted to quit. I hope to show up for my students to remind them they can keep going too”

Ms. Golonka is also working as one of the new teacher coordinators for HSTAT’s Theater Workshop. She manages the Stage Crew department where they help organize props and sets for any projects the workshop considers doing. She believes the best part about being involved in theater is seeing students’ personalities outside of school.

Mr. Trieu

Mr. Trieu is the new Weight Training and Physical Education teacher of HSTAT who originally came from New Jersey. He likes that HSTAT is smaller than his last school because getting around the the building is quicker. More importantly, he believes that having fewer students means he has more time to interact and get to know them better.

Mr. Trieu also works as the advisor for the Athletic Director’s Club, where he works to support students who want to remain eligible for playing on our Varsity and JV Sports teams.

Ms. Guzman

Ms. Guzman is an 11th grade Math teacher who works with Ms. Chan. Having taught in Sunset Park High School before, Ms. Guzman loves the atmosphere amongst the students at our school. The teachers as well have been very supportive towards her, especially Ms. Chan.

“Ms. Chan has been nothing but supportive, and she has been like an older big sister. She has several years of experience at Tele and has helped me with the scoop within the school system from planning lessons to collaborating with one another.”

Her first year as a teacher is all about balancing being new to a school while having just come out of college. At Sunset Park High, she felt that the school was very diverse and supportive.  Ms. Guzman likes that at HSTAT it has been easy to build relationships among the staff and students.

“My biggest goal is creating a safe space for students. Comfortability correlates to a student’s willingness to learn material in their classes.”

Ms. Guzman is also working on starting a new Movie Club on Fridays between 2:30 to 4:00 after school. Here, students and movie enthusiasts alike will watch and analyze movies on all sorts of subjects.

Ms. Muhammad

Ms. Muhammad is a 9th grade Ancient World Literature teacher who coteaches with Ms. Cen. To her, HSTAT is full of community and filled with many people of many personalities. Having taught middle school before, Ms. Muhammad has noticed that the students are a lot more independent, and while they do need support and guidance, they work very hard in the class.

Ms. Muhammad has been teaching for eight years. Her first year of teaching was challenging, as she had to learn from scratch in a short amount of time. Over time, she got better at time management and learned how to adjust quickly.

Ms. Muhammad has always wanted to teach in a high school, especially at a high school with a large community. She is also one of the teacher coordinators for the Black Student Union (BSU), a club focused on emphasizing strong community building.

Mr. Sum

Mr. Sum is the 9th grade Global History teacher who works with Mrs. Mastrugulio, and this is both teachers’ first year in the History Department. Having taught 7th and 11th grade, Mr. Sum is pleasantly surprised with how respectful the students are and how willing they are to work with their teachers. Mr. Sum’s first year was difficult as it felt like doing a presentation everyday; however, he got better at managing the classroom and time with his students and responding to their questions, answers, and concerns.

Additionally, Mr. Sum is working on adding a club to the school’s numerous programs, the Key Club. The Key Club is intended to promote volunteer work with programs and organizations outside of the school, an opportunity that our students can benefit from even more. Unlike the National Honors Society (NHS), students would not need to meet special requirements in order to join the club, making it more inclusive and helping underclassmen prepare for an organization like NHS.

Ms. Ahmetaj

Ms. Ahmetaj is a 10th grade English teacher who works with Ms. Brown. It is her first year teaching overall, and she loves how supportive and welcoming the school community has been.

“The students are really good. They talk a lot and I feel like we’re starting to form relationships as we learn and joke around with one another. They are really receptive to the lessons overall.”

The goal that Ms. Ahmetaj wants for her students is for them to be able to become better at applying evidence when writing essays. She has always had a passion for teaching, ELA and reading. She says, “I would pretend to be a teacher with my siblings growing up, and I would even give them fake ‘homework’; teaching has just come naturally to me.”

Originally, Ms. Ahmetaj wanted to go into business, but her teachers encouraged her to chase after her passion of education. She took some education classes and liked them, and decided that she would strive to become a teacher.

Mr. Flores

Mr. Flores is a 9th and 10th grade Living Environment and Algebra II teacher. It is his first year teaching overall, and he loves how supportive the teachers have been so far in acclimating him into the school. His students are very respectful and he believes he can connect and get along with them.

Originally wanting to become a college professor, Mr. Flores worked as a substitute teacher at Sunset Park High School for two years. He first graduated with a degree for Hospitality Management and worked in the hotel industry for a few years until the pandemic.

“Following the pandemic, hotels were shutting down left and right and I wasn’t working for a while until 2023. The idea was to go back to school and get my Masters in Hospitality.” 

It was then where Mr. Flores got into an accident that put him out of work for two years. Along the way he met Mr. E Rubin who asked him to help coach our school’s soccer team. In that role, Mr. Flores got a taste of what it was like to work with teenagers and this is what pushed him to become a high school teacher.

“Once I started working with Mr. Rubin and the soccer team, that’s when I realized I should help those students in high school get to college.”

One of Mr. Flores’s main goals for his students is to help prepare them for the future. When he started college, he personally felt that he didn’t connect as much as he should and was very introverted. He wants to help students grow into a position where they won’t feel the same as he did.

That’s All Folks!

We hope you enjoyed meeting many of the new teachers in the school! We here at the Hive wish them good tidings and best of wishes as they start their first year at HSTAT.