Mrs. Guggenheimer has been teaching math at Greenwich Academy for over twenty years. A daughter of civil rights activists, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College, a women’s college outside of Philadelphia.
After graduating from Bryn Mawr, Mrs. Guggenheimer went on to earn a degree in technology from UMass Amherst, where she also studied education, programming, and mathematics. An avid fan of The History of the Making of the Atomic Bomb, Mrs. Guggenheimer has also interned at the Choate Summer School and taught at the Manhattan Center for Science and Math.
Once the advisor for GA’s Harry Potter Club, Mrs. Guggenheimer can currently be found either re-watching The Princess Bride over dark chocolate and tea, dreaming about meeting Eleanor Roosevelt, or batting for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
If you could choose to live the life of one fictional character, who would you be?
I don’t like to know my ending, so I’d like to be Harry Potter’s daughter. She’s entered a nice world, Voldemort’s gone, and there’s a lot of opportunity. I’d also have magical powers.
Should one innocent life be sacrificed to save the lives of millions of criminals?
I’d sacrifice one innocent if it were me. I’d have a hard time sacrificing the life of somebody else.
What color lightsaber would you pick?
Purple.
Which character would you be from the Hunger Games?
I think that I would like to be Rue from District 11. She was my favorite. She was so smart and sweet.
What sports have you participated in throughout your life?
When I was in high school, I was a very serious gymnast. At 16, I grew to be 5 feet 7, so I had to stop gymnastics. When I got to college, I did a little bit of gymnastics, but I didn’t have a sport to do, so my husband, who is a very good tennis player, taught me how to play tennis.
What one superpower would you choose?
I wish I could create clean drinking water. I think that’s going to be a huge problem in this world.
What words or quotation would you put on a single slip of paper that would survive an apocalyptic disaster?
There’s a chemistry teacher at Deerfield, Helen Boyden, who once said, “Other fools have done it, so can you.”
If you could make a machine that could do anything, what would it be?
I wish I could find a way to make some kind of system so that people who wanted to be safe from violence could be safe, like some kind of force field. I think violence is a huge problem.
What is your parting advice for GA students/faculty/both?
Commit to less so that you can enjoy, excel and thrive in the things you choose to do. Less is sometimes more and always allow for more sleep at night!
