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Photographed by Nuwar Osman (12-3)
In his first year at Masterman, Mr. Gilken did it all, and now he’s the new dean. Gilken, a second-year English teacher, replaced Ms. Solis-Cohen after her retirement last year and immediately embraced his new role at Masterman, connecting with students through discussions of sports, music, and Masterman culture. After an involved first year at the school-- teaching 8th and 9th grade, coaching MHS golf and MMS intramural soccer, directing stage crew, and representing Masterman at the high school fair--he took the job of high school dean, dropping his advisory and a few classes.
“The transition to the dean’s job, y’know, it’s busy; there’s never any down time now. I’ve always been a pretty organized person, but this has forced me to be really regimented with sort of what I do and what I don’t,” says Mr. Gilken. “In the end, the only way I get planning and grading done for my English classes is I if I have set, designated time. Otherwise, I’ll push it on to the back burner. In the first quarter several things got turned back later then I would have liked.” English assignments aren’t the only time-consuming aspect of Mr. Gilken’s work at Masterman. “The other hard part or downside is there are a million meetings and many of them are of… questionable usefulness,” he laughs. “Many of them could take half as long as they do take. It's never an issue with the kids, it's always an issue with like something structurally with the school or with adults.”
While beginning as the new dean may be busy, it’s just as rewarding. “The upside is that I’ve gotten to know dozens of kids, maybe more than that, that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten the chance to know,” says Gilken. “Almost every day one of the students comes here [the lunchroom table] with an issue or problem and most of the time I can help them solve that. It’s the best part of the job. There’s a ton of stuff.. Helping the kids is what makes it awesome.”
Mr. Gilken has learned from the best. He replaced the beloved Ms. Elana as the dean, whose immeasurable impact on Masterman has touched every student in the high school. I asked Mr. Gilken about what the transition with Ms. Elana was like. “It was hard. Huge shoes to fill. There are many kids here for whom Ms. Elana still plays a huge role in their lives. The hopefulness of Ms. Elana in this transition, her willingness to give me a heads up on how she did stuff, how she does stuff, that was amazing,” recalls Mr. Gilken. He hopes to live up to the example she set.
“In a lot of ways she was a confidant or an advisor to a lot of the kids. I’m slowly working into that role. I’m most familiar with the ninth and tenth grade,” he explains, which makes sense, as many of them have been students of Mr. Gilken. “I have a good relationship with the eleventh and twelfth. The way I look at this job is that in two years from now I’ll have a good relationship with the entire high school, that’s what will make a lot of the job easier.”
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