Photo submitted by Michael Marquis.
Being stuck in quarantine has slowed down the world, but of course, we are going to continue moving forward. Every year, students return to meet their teachers and classmates, and every year there are new staff members like Michael Marquis.
Prior to coming to Malden High, Marquis taught as a Business Instructor at Perry Technical Institute in Washington state for two years. Christopher Mastrangelo, principal of Malden High, said that Marquis was “born to teach,” and has great “confidence in what he’s doing.” Marquis teaches two business courses at Malden High School, Business Management and Oral Communications.
According to Natalia Brennan, Director of Instructional Technology, Marquis had been hired to replace Debra Buckley, a former business teacher who retired in the spring. Brennan called him “[a] fresh breath of energy.”
He attended two undergraduate schools, Colby-Sawyer College, where he received his bachelor’s in Business Communications and Mercy College where he obtained his bachelor’s in Science and Business Management. After, he went to Endicott College where he earned his MBA Masters in Marketing.
Marquis started off his career in business working at Wayfair in Boston. Wayfair is a popular furniture company which sells a variety of furniture. He began in the customer service and sales department, but quickly got promoted to manager within six months. He spent his next eight years working there.
Beth Horwitz, a business teacher who works alongside Marquis, only had great things to say about him. She stated that he “[seemed] very nice [and] very knowledgeable in the courses that he was [going to] teach.” Horwitz also mentioned that he is, “very professional and has a great personality.” According to Horwitz, Marquis looked very excited to be working at Malden High School and fit right in as a “great asset to Malden High School.” Marquis’s experience working in the real world makes for a more interesting learning environment. “The thing [he] loves the most is definitely bringing the real world into the classroom.”
After being in the corporate world for a long period of time, Marquis realized that he had trained a lot of people and looking back, his “most rewarding time that [he] had while working in business [… was] definitely training new employees.” After making that realization, he decided to make teaching others the main focus of his job.
Marquis began his teaching career at Perry Technical Institute as a Business Instructor. Marquis had always been more interested in teaching at the high school level than at the college level. In his eyes, in college, he would just be a professor, but in high school, he could be a role model and mentor for all of his students.
When he found out he was accepted to work at Malden High School this summer, he was a bit nervous, realizing that he would have to change his teaching styles to fit that of a teenager. However, he was also very excited about working at a high school for the first time. He stated that “the diversity at Malden Public Schools is exactly why [he] went into teaching.” He added that it, “adds a lot of value to the classroom.”
Now that Marquis has begun teaching some of the students at Malden High, he is no longer nervous. He “absolutely loves it because [he] thinks the students are amazing.” Marquis adores his students, and believes that working at MHS “[is] a lot more rewarding than teaching at the college level.”
Marquis moved to the Boston area this summer for the job. Outside of school, he has an 18-month-old son and enjoys martial arts, which has been a tradition in his family. He also enjoys writing short horror stories and novels that he described as being “really dark and twisted.”
Marquis “[feels] extremely grateful to be part of such an amazing community,” and loves his job so much that,“[he] can’t even believe that [he is] being paid for [it].”
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Marquis taught at Perry Technical Institute for three years, not two. It also reported that he got his NBA in Business Administration instead of his MBA in Marketing.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Marquis began in the community service department instead of the customer service and sales department.
