As new WMS principal, Jennifer Chen Fein appreciates how her upbringing influences her role in the students’ education
Raider Times photo / Courtesy photo
Jennifer Chen Fein took over as principal at Watertown Middle School for the 2022-23 school year.
March 31, 2023
In June 2022, Jennifer Chen Fein was announced as the new principal of Watertown Middle School. With this appointment, Chen Fein became one of the few people of color holding such a position in Watertown’s education system. We interviewed Chen Fein at two crucial points in her first year; the end of first quarter and the end of her first semester. In this article we get to know the new principal, her experiences. and her plans going forward.
Chen Fein grew up in the suburbs of Rochester, N.Y. – a predominantly white community. She is of Han Chinese, Taiwanese, and Filipino background and is proud of her heritage and culture. Both her grandparents were from China and left shortly after World War II as communism took over China. Her mother was raised in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States for job training in the 1980s. Her father was born in Taiwan but lived in the countries of Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Swaziland before moving to the United States in the 1970s, for college. Her parents met in the 1980s and raised Chen Fein and her two sisters in the United States.
Chen Fein’s early experiences with education were shaped by her background as the daughter of immigrants.
“When I first attended school as a first-grader, it was as a child of immigrants. My parents really valued the academic part of education, as it had opened doors for them to immigrate to the United States,” she said.
However, Chen Fein also cites the significant difference between her home life and school life and that she was expected to behave differently. She felt connected to her heritage at home when she spoke Mandarin and was able to celebrate cultural traditions. Yet felt disconnected when she was at school and says she “experienced racist comments from my peers in school.”
In furthering her education, Chen Fein attended SUNY Binghamton (N.Y) College, majoring in mathematics and psychology. She then pursued a masters in Mathematics Teaching from Teachers College at Columbia University and has a M.Ed. in School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
In regards to her college experiences, Chen Fein said, “It’s not about where you go to college, it’s about what you make of the experience.”
Due to growing up in a predominantly white town, Chen Fein found she could only really look up to her parents racially. So, she understands the significance of her role in education, not just as a leader but as someone that students of color can look up to. She believes that her hometown experiences helped her realize the importance of representation in education.
At her previous job in administration, also here in Massachusetts, students were more likely to come to her than the white administrative staff with issues of race. She is excited to be a resource for students, as she wished she had access to someone like her when she was a student herself.
“It is because of both my positive and negative experiences in schools that I have continued to love my career in education, and the opportunity I have to positively influence the experience of students with many different identities, backgrounds, and stories,” Chen Fein said.
At WMS this year, Chen Fein hopes to achieve consistency in the school system, creating unanimity between teachers, teaching students and their caregivers about the intricacies of grades, and highlighting the importance of letting students recognize their mistakes.
When asked about how she would characterize her own attitude toward learning, she responded, “Almost everything can be learned, it’s about making that learning motivational and accessible to learners. One really important attitude to adopt is to practice having a growth mind-set rather than a fixed one, about something that feels really challenging.”
The new administration, even now, is still getting used to the school and its system. Chen Fein recognizes that she has to get to know the community as a new member, in order to understand the direction for growth. Chen Fein said she admires working alongside Assistant Principal Jennifer Sarmiento and Assistant Principal Susan Carle and highlights their powerful alliance as an all-female group that promotes diversity in Watertown’s education system.
On her experience thus far she states there is never a dull moment and that “it has been exciting to join the teachers who have been here, and to have the opportunity to rebuild and redefine what it means to be a part of the WMS community.”
–March 28, 2023–
