Molly Gurner, Newman Alum, Returns to Coach, Teach, and Energize Our Social Media

Molly Gurner wears multiple hats at The Newman School. She credits moving from one role to another as energizing. From teaching art, to being the girls’ head soccer coach, to overseeing CAS (the Creativity, Activity and Service element of the IB program), to posting on and managing our Newman social media platforms, Molly has to change focus multiple times a day. Like a skilled soccer player, in her work at Newman, she must sometimes change directions, pass the ball, ask for help, or go for goal. She likes the direction the school is going in and feels especially great about joining our team of faculty and staff to take Newman to its next level of success. 

Born and raised in Boston, Molly attended a Boston public school for K–5, a charter school for grades 6–8, and Newman for high school. She is very happy to be back as an Alum. She’s “always loved this community, had a very positive experience as a student, and is hoping to help facilitate and provide that for others.” 

Molly’s experience as a student at Newman allowed her to develop varied interests and skills that carried her through college, graduate school, and now her career in education. As an IB HL Art student at Newman, Molly had to work hard to both create a multitude of pieces but also, known to be one of the most challenging aspects of the IB, spend a lot of time reflecting. Her favorite mediums are collage/mixed media, graphic design, and design-related arts. She especially loves typography, package design, logo creation, and anything in adobe illustrator. 

With a Bachelors of Art in Art from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a Masters Degree in Athletic Administration from Boston College, it is no surprise that Molly straddles both of these worlds. Like her full throttle Newman art experience, she also spent a lot of her youth playing soccer, from rec leagues when she was only eight, to travel and club soccer in middle and high school, to high school soccer at Newman, to Division III soccer in college.  Molly feels that soccer has been the most consistent thing in her life, that it helped her come out of her shell and be herself, taught her a lot about herself, and got her through the most difficult times in her life. She is grateful to be “able to create this space for younger generations to discover who they are.” Spoken like an artist, she loves being able “to provide and curate the same experience for others that [she] was lucky enough to have.”  

The girls’ soccer team “exemplifies a textbook Newman team experience, varying ability levels coming together, students of many backgrounds with varying life experiences, all with a strong desire to work hard and improve, to get our name out there.” Molly says they began the season as a bit of an underdog but with a lot of hard work, they were to take a lot of their competitors by surprise!  As Molly patiently recovers from her own soccer injury—a broken ankle last spring that resulted in surgery this past July—we see that patience also paid off with her team—the team making it to the playoffs for one of the few times since 2011 and 2012 (which were Molly’s junior and senior years when she captained the team helping lead them to win the only two championships Newman girls soccer has ever won).

Just like Molly has found homes in the various teams she has played for, she has created that for our Newman girls’ soccer players. They have so much fun together: “whether it’s singalongs in the vans to and from practice and games, their love for Crumbl cookies, or overall how much they care for and support each other; they have really bonded together, taking what they're capable of on the field to the next level.” 

We are so lucky to have Molly wearing so many hats at Newman, having returned as a proud alum now living our "heart speaks to heart" motto within her classroom, on the field, and in her position as the coordinator of CAS (the Creativity, Activity, and Service element of the IBDP). And then to top it off, Molly,  drawing on her lived Newman experiences, is bringing great vitality to our Newman social media presence! #Follow us on Instagram to check it out!