Sound Shore

A Port Chester High School teacher with an unusual resume is receiving kudos for dedication — thanks to one of his students.

Steven Gibaldi worked in the New York City Corporation Counsel’s Office before coming to Port Chester 15 years ago. He teaches American history and created an environmental studies course. He is a resident of North Salem and has served on the New York City Audobon Society’s board of directors.

Student Jennifer Garcia nominated Gibaldi as an “educator of distinction” through the National Society of High School Scholars. Students who join the society may nominate one of their teachers for the honor via the NSHSS website.

Gibaldi, 52, worked in the areas of labor, environmental and constitutional law before switching careers. The turning point came when he had an opportunity one summer to teach natural history to adults in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he said. “I kind of felt like I had a calling for it,” he said this week.

Teaching fit his desire to be a “generalist” in his career, and made use of the study strategies he picked up in law school, he said.

Gibaldi’s environmental studies course includes a challenge to students to come up with an idea for a “green business.” (In the photo at right are Gibaldi with students Jesus Blanco and Lukasz Jakimiec.)

His U.S. history course is currently looking at immigration history in the late 19th Century. With Port Chester’s large immigrant population, “That can be a very potent subject for a lot of our students,” he said.