The newly-hired assistant librarian is more than familiar with the dynamic here at Triton High School.

“The more things change, the more things stay the same.” said Dow in regards to Triton’s evolution since his graduation in 2010.

Since his days as a Viking, Dow has kept himself busy over the last seven years. He attended the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth where he obtained a degree in history with a minor in religious studies. He is currently enrolled at Southern New Hampshire University studying for his master’s degree in higher education and administration. Dow’s most intellectual growing experience was a media literacy project that he completed at UMass. He eventually wants to continue his teaching career at a university to be able to work in higher education.

Dow said he ultimately plans on returning to a university or college, this time as part of the faculty and that he has “no desire to be your typical classroom teacher.”

He said he prefers to work with students outside of the classroom, assisting them with processes such as transitioning from high school to college, counseling, orientation etc.

While at Triton, Dow has been helping our students with the college process. According to senior Maggie Riccio, “he knows a lot about college because he is currently working to get another degree.”

Riccio said Dow introduced her to a website that will help her with figuring out what she wants to do after high school.

While attending UMass, Dow said he worked in student activities which is what he said inspired him to go to graduate school to work in higher education. Dow said he was very involved in student activities, mainly planning academic programs.

One of Dow’s most prominent experiences that helped prepare him for this type of work was a media literacy project that focused on the unfair portrayal of women in the media.

“We went into local high schools and taught students about media literacy and sexism in the media.” The curriculum Dow designed coincided with the documentary “Miss Representation” and trained UMass students how to go off and teach the program to students at their local high schools.

Since coming back to Triton, Dow is now working alongside the faculty, some of whom used to be his teachers. Dow said the most challenging part of coming to a new school was “getting to know the culture and the students and how the community here works” in addition to the transition from the higher education world back down to high school. Dow also said, “all of the students and teachers have been really great and really welcoming.” In particular, Ms. Van Twuyver, Triton’s head media specialist/librarian who has been showing Dow the ropes of the library. She said she enjoys working with him.

Van Twuyver said Dow has been very helpful because he was already familiar with the library software and his presence is allowing her to take on more students in the library, making the Learning Commons a more welcoming place in Triton. Van Twuyver said, “now that I have an assistant we can fix [the parts of the library system that students don’t like].”