Although Upper School Spanish teacher Mark Hernández is new to Parker this year, he is used to transitioning to a new environment.

“I’ve lived and worked in many parts of the U.S. over my life,” Hernández said. “I’ve lived ten years in Boston, six months in Vermont, 13 years in different parts of the Midwest – Iowa, Kansas, and Ohio.”

Hernández has also spent time traveling and researching in the Spanish-speaking world, including Mexico, Guatemala, and Spain. In 2011-2013, Hernández taught Spanish at an American school in Taiwan, and Taipei for two years, where he was also able to travel to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Parker stood out to Hernández due to its sense of community. “I think Parker stands out,” Hernández said. “I think that both students, faculty, and staff are given a lot of autonomy, and that the overall feel is that it is a very warm place. Everyone knows each other pretty well, which is a unique characteristic in 2015.”

Hernández was born in San Antonio, Texas, into a fourth generation Mexican-American family. Growing up, his parents were bilingual in Spanish and English, although they spoke only English at home. After graduating from Yale University with a Bachelor’s degree in history and Spanish, Hernández went on to receive a Masters and PhD in Hispanic studies with a focus on Latin America and Latino United States. Hernández has taught at the graduate, undergraduate and high school level. At Yale, Hernández first learned from friends about Parker.

“I love it,” Hernández said. “I think it’s a very welcoming place. I can tell immediately that the school genuinely cares about the students here, and that extends out to the faculty and staff.”

In addition to teaching, Hernández is a certified energy medicine practitioner, working with people and animals to “help them with their well-being.”

The Department of Foreign Languages and Cultural Studies started their search for a new Spanish teacher after former Upper School Spanish teacher Ingrid Rodriguez announced her retirement. The hiring process began by conducting phone interviews with potential candidates. The selection was then narrowed down, and the top candidates came to Parker to teach a sample class and for personal interviews.

“He had a very eclectic background, teaching many different age groups,” Upper School Languages and Cultural Studies Department Chair Grades 9-12 Lorin Pritikin said. “He was very interested in not only language but also culture, and had most recently taught high school in Taiwan. I like that he is able to be empathetic and relate well to students that are learning something so foreign and new to them.”

The observation team, consisting of Rodriguez, Pritikin, Upper School Spanish teacher Julia Garner, and former Upper School Division Head Joe Ruggiero, had narrowed down their search to their top two candidates when Upper School Spanish teacher Rafael Castro found a new opportunity in Connecticut, allowing them to hire both candidates to fill the open positions– Hernández and Upper School Spanish teacher Yadiner Sabir.

Even though this is only Garner’s second year teaching at Parker, she is the only returning teacher in the Spanish Department this year.

“We’ve had a complete turnover in the Spanish Department in a two-year period, so it’s an exciting time in the program,” Garner said. “We’re hoping to coordinate more across sections and across levels. We’re really excited to work together to establish common objectives across all of our courses. It’s looking like an exciting, bright future for the Spanish program.”

Hernández is also looking forward to the change.  “I see it as a real opportunity, I see a new openness to ideas,” Hernández said. “I’ve definitely felt my input was solicited into the program. It’s going to be an opportunity to collectively see what we’ve done well in the Spanish program at Parker, where we’d like to go, and how we bridge that gap.”

“With energy medicine, the premise is that all of us, people and animals, have a physical body, and an energy body,” Hernández said. “An energy body is like a blueprint for your physical body. Often when we experience pain and issues on the physical body, it starts out in the energy body. People can read the energy field, the blueprint, see where the imbalance is, and make changes to the patterns, which then show up on the physical body.”

Hernández’s first encounter with energy medicine occurred while he was teaching in the U.S. eight years ago. He “noticed there were certain patterns” in his work life. He then called his brother, who is a doctor of integrative medicine, who set Hernández up with an “energy healer.”  

“Over a period of a couple months, I noticed changes,” Hernández said, “so I took note, and a couple years later I called my brother back and told him I wanted to learn energy healing because we all have the ability to do energy healing if we chose.”

Most of his sessions with people , which are conducted by phone, last 30 minutes. During the conversation, Hernández is able to “tune into the energy field” of his client, and identify their issue. Hernández then sends “three corrections to the Governing Meridian,” which starts at the top of the lip, continues over the head, and goes down the spinal column. Sometimes clients will feel a change, and sometimes they will not.

Hernández also enjoys playing basketball, listening to jazz music, and visiting the various neighborhoods of Chicago.

Currently teaching two sections of Advanced Spanish Literature, a section of Spanish I, and an Introduction to Spanish class, and hopes he is here to stay.

“I think we’re all meant to be at a place for as long as we’re meant to be,” Hernández said, “and I hope for me that’s a long time.”