Eleven Months Later: James Bellitto ‘21

We caught up with a recent graduate to see where life has taken him post-Macalester. 

Majors: Spanish, Educational Studies  

Current position and location. 

I am a full-time co-teacher in a 4th and 5th grade bilingual reading classroom at Eddie Bernice Johnson STEM Academy in Dallas Independent School District in Texas. The position is in-person.

How did you get your current job placement? 

My placement is a part of a fellowship at Urban Teachers. Through this program, I work as a co-teacher in a high-need classroom. Next year and for the three years after that, I will be a teacher of record in my own classroom. The first two years of the program we also are full time students, taking classes at night to complete a Master’s of Education from Johns Hopkins University.

Please describe your average day.

I wake up at 5:45 a.m., and arrive at school at 7:10. I help teach 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade language arts to bilingual students in both English and Spanish. After school lets out at 3:00 p.m. I go home and take classes for my masters remotely from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.. By then I am tired from full-time work and school and head to bed early so I can get up and do it all again the next day.

Are there any lessons from Mac that you use in your life or career?

My majors at Macalester were educational studies and Spanish, so my Macalester education directly informs my day to day life at work and school. My learning about systems of power both inside and outside of education makes me more prepared to address them head-on in the public education system. Studying abroad was also transformative for me. I am not a native speaker of Spanish, so my experience while abroad in Costa Rica helped me understand what it is like to be immersed in a different culture and language than my own. This helps me empathize better with my students, many of whom are recent immigrants.

What do you do in your downtime?

I don’t have much of it right now! Mostly I play with my dog, spent quality time with my partner Zoelle (also Mac ’21), and explore the Dallas Fort-Worth metroplex.

Please finish this question: Knowing what I know now, this the advice I would give myself as a college senior:

Trust yourself to take risks and try something that is different than your Plan A. Move to a new place, try a job that you’re interested in, or travel. While you are young and right out of college is the best time to explore. To do what I do every day now I had to push myself and grow, but it is growth in a direction that I am proud of, and I would happily do it all over again.