By Elle Storoe
The 2020-21 school year has brought a lot of new faces to the Oak Hall faculty. One of the new faces is Zachary Mair, a Middle and Upper School Latin teacher.
From a youthful age, Mair knew he wanted to be a teacher. Ever since he tutored his peers in high school, Mair and his reputation for being known as a great teacher has been secure. “The main reason I wanted to [teach] is [that] it was something I was really passionate about,” he said. “I ended up really, really enjoying the ability to help many, many students, and I just haven’t stopped,” Mair elaborated. Before joining Oak Hall, Mair taught at Olympia High School in Windermere, Fla. He was first introduced to Oak Hall during his first high school Latin competition, which Oak Hall hosted, and has been drawn to the school ever since. “Oak Hall has always been this big name in the Latin community and the time I spent here with the competition, and everything I had with the [David and Generosa] Jackson’s beforehand, it drove me to go further and further to being able to work with the classics and students who are interested in it,” Mair explained.
Mair grew up in Orlando and went to Winter Springs High School. Knowing he wanted to be a teacher, he attended the University of Central Florida and got a degree in teaching Latin. At Oak Hall, he teaches Latin B, Latin 2, Latin 3, and Latin 4. Mair loves teaching a language, as he enjoys teaching students for multiple years, helping them grow along with the language. He is also the head of the Oak Hall Junior Classical League (JCL). He loves Gainesville, but due to the restrictions of COVID-19, he hasn’t had the chance to explore what the town has to offer. He is excited for when he will be able to experience Gainesville more openly without having to worry about the virus.
In his spare time, Mair loves to play board games, ranging from the most basic to the more obscure. His favorite being Citadels, a game where players acquire new roles with the purpose of obtaining gold and construct buildings, in turn, gaining points to win the game. Whenever Mair is not home, he loves to water ski and sail. He feels that if he were not a teacher, he would have worked on integration of technology into classroom settings, trying to develop programs and fluency for the teachers and students in the classrooms especially for Latin classes. Mair is very excited to be here, noting the school has already left a huge impression on him.