Throughout the years, North Arlington High School has seen and welcomed many new faces that have become part of the school. Some of these new faces have not only been students, but teachers as well. One of them is Algebra and Computer Programming teacher, Mr. McCarthy. Mr. McCarthy has been teaching at N.A.H.S. for three years. In addition to being a teacher of algebra and computer programming classes, he is very much involved in the school and its activities. He is the coach for the girls JV basketball team, freshman class adviser, and also runs the Mac Lab where any student who needs extra help is welcome.

Although his role in the school may be known, his background on how and why he got here may not. Mr. McCarthy’s starting point was studying Electrical Engineering in the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Though he was studying this major, he stated that even then he knew that teaching was what he really wanted to do. With the mathematical background in Electrical Engineering, he had a backbone to become the math teacher that he had always desired to be. He began his teaching career at the middle school level.

In downtown Jersey City, he taught at Middle School #4 for two years, and stated that it was “Challenging, but I loved it.” He also taught in Bayonne’s Holy Family Academy, which is a middle school as well. Afterward, he stopped teaching middle school, and moved up to high school. Mr. McCarthy noted that he always wanted to teach upper level classes. According to him, his first year in North Arlington High School was great, and everyone was very professional. After three years, he feels like he has learned a lot, and really believes that he is getting a hang of teaching high school. Mr. McCarthy plans on continuing his career of teaching because he truly loves it. Hopefully, he will continue to be a part of the Viking family