Camille and Patrick Morelli are a Newman Power Couple
“The signs are green, the lights are red…the snow starts falling, old friends start calling…” it’s the “Time of the Year” as Patrick Morelli sings in a collaborative production with his wife, Camille Morelli; his high school band, Swim; and his current band, dayes.* “It’s the time of the year, we can be who we want to be, the person we always wanted to be.”
This song’s sentiment of love and intention sets the stage perfectly for our Community Spotlight on one of Newman’s power couples: Patrick and Camille Morelli—each wearing multiple hats as teacher, coach, and dorm head.
Patrick and Camille met at Hamilton College, introduced by mutual friends from their respective sports circles. Patrick headed to Hamilton with a plan—to be pre-med, major in Bio, play football, and to ultimately become a doctor. Camille, tracking more spontaneously, headed to college to play basketball and major in Econ, with a loose goal of setting herself up to make good money. Each of their goals had been influenced by their parents’ lives: Patrick’s parents were both physicians, and he would follow suit; Camille’s parents did not have a lot of money, and she would remedy that for herself.
Patrick and Camille quickly became best friends in college and not long after, embraced a relationship that would eventually lead to marriage. It is through the love and dynamic of their relationship that they “can be who [they] want to be, [the people they have] always wanted to be” which in this case meant rethinking their career trajectories to tap into passions and interests they knew to be true but had not yet prioritized.
Patrick, while on the doctor track, had always loved music, grooving to the movie School of Rock and learning to play the piano, guitar, and bass from an early age. He eventually formed a high school band called Swim, but it was not until he was living with his new bride that it occurred to him that music could be a part of his career not just a side gig: “Camille gave me the nudge I needed!” After college, Patrick worked as a Medical Assistant, EMT, and ambulance driver but in 2022, with the support of his wife who had a steady income from her software job and a jump-right-in spirit, Patrick took the leap from a medical track to be hired at Newman as a teacher. On a parallel track, he was committing to crafting a life in which he could have time to write and perform music.
Camille also got a job right out of college—in software development. She worked in a fully-remote position at Brookside for four years making money and working in a field she felt well prepared for. When Patrick left the medical track, Camille was excited for him and also a big help to him, both financially given her job at Brookside and because Patrick, who had been asked to coach basketball, needed her help on the court.
Camille had grown up loving sports, especially basketball, but was not much of a student—until she met a particular basketball coach, Coach Alex Gallagher. In addition to coaching her childhood town team, he also coached at Nobles and Greenough. When she was in 6th grade, the coach suggested to Camille that there could be a connection between being a good student and having expanded basketball opportunities—namely going to Nobles where he coached. The challenge was posed, and she never looked back. She turned it around, attended Nobles, and then Hamilton College where she was a great student and athlete. While she credits this coach as being a transformative influence in her life, it was not until she was married to Patrick, and living in the context of Newman, that Camille began to understand that she could make the important shift from working in a remote software development job to becoming a teacher and coach—positioning herself to offer the same inspiration and guidance to students that she had so appreciated from her coaches and teachers.
In 2022, while the couple did not yet live at Newman, Patrick was working there full-time, and Camille was getting more and more invested. Calling on the inspiration she’d had from her MS/HS basketball coach, Camille was already influencing other young players. A year later, Camille and Patrick would move into the dorm—Camille then adding dorm duty to her very full plate. And then, this past fall in 2024, Camille left the security of her software job to become a full-time teacher, coach, and dorm staff member at Newman.
Today 247 Marlborough and 237/239 Beacon are lucky to have both Patrick and Camille teaching and coaching by day and serving as dorm staff for 40 kids from around the world by night. Both in class, on the court, on the field, and in the dorm, a big part of Patrick's and Camille’s jobs is to create space and opportunities for “their kids” to craft their own paths forward, to remind kids that they don’t need to limit themselves to taking the paths most expected but that they can explore and become “who [they] want to be be.”
Life as educators and at Newman is rewarding to Patrick and Camille because they enjoy inspiring young adults but also because, like at any great school, they get to be a part of a community of teachers and learners whereby everyone is challenged to grow and learn. Newman offers lots of professional development opportunities but also, as Patrick says, a lot of variety in a day: he gets to coach, teach, play music, and sing acapella. Similarly, Patrick and Camille have embraced the teaching schedule as one that builds in time to refuel and re-engage with one’s own exploration and learning. In fact just two summers ago, the young couple took a road trip from Maine to Florida, playing music at gigs and in dive bars while staying in cabins along the way. While Camille was mostly a support roadie on that trip—still working remotely as a software developer—the seed was planted for her to join the band. She now plays bass with dayes. In fact their newly released song “Time of the Year” is the first time Camille’s bass was recorded as part of the track.
Patrick and Camille are one of Newman’s power couples not only because they work hard and offer our students inspirational teaching, coaching, and guidance but also because they embody the value of proposition of a Newman education “where no one is anonymous, each is unique, and everyone belongs…embrac[ing] our founding motto: “Cor ad Cor Loquitur.” Heart Speaks to Heart.
*Find more dayes and Swim music here:
Newman provides opportunity for students from diverse backgrounds to pursue serious studies in a welcoming and supportive environment where self and community are paramount.
