HARPER LARSEN: Welcome to today’s episode of unexpected friendships, where we find unusual pairs around SPA and dig deeper into how friendships form and how they last. I’m your host, Harper Larsen, and today I will be diving into the long friendship of physics teachers Ms.Baker and Dr.Hovan. Dr.Hovan and Ms.Baker met 11 years ago when Dr.Hovan started teaching at the school.

KARISSA BAKER: I met Dr. Hovan When he started at SPA, which was 11 years ago. So 2013.

HARPER LARSEN: Dr. Hovan and Ms. Baker have been friends so long, it seems so much longer than 11 years at school. Ms. Baker and Dr. Hovan has enjoyed creating new projects such as graph matching,

KARISSA BAKER: probably, like favorite memories, are possibly developing the graph matching competition in physics nine. So that’s an idea that we came up with together, and it’s sort of like slowly evolved over the years to become like a big event.

HARPER LARSEN: One of Dr. Hovans favorite memories is a project they used to do in physics nine.

SCOT HOVAN: I think that, you know, we have tried new things. We’ve done crazy projects, like we used to do a sculpture project with sound, and you should have seen how much of a disaster. The old physics dining room was because it wasn’t in this space. We would have wood from big power saws and using construction tools in the middle of the school day, and there would be saw dust all over the place, and just things were a wreck. But it was a lot of fun, and so being able to do things like that at school was fun.

HARPER LARSEN: Miss Baker and Dr. Hovan are friends at school, but their friendship extends off campus, like when they went to a co workers wedding, or hanging out with their kids at home,

SCOT HOVAN: things like, you know, we went to Mr. Martin’s wedding, you know, and just being able to to see, you know him as a new member of our team, and just being able to work with him.

HARPER LARSEN: A unique aspect of Dr. Hovan and Ms. Baker’s friendship is that both their kids go to SPA. When the kids were younger, Dr. Hovan would get updates about Lower School traditions or plays from Ms. Baker.

SCOT HOVAN: I think that one of the cool things about being at SPA is that our kids can go to the same school, and so it was really neat hearing about what Miss Baker’s experience was like with her kids, because then when my own kids came here, especially like going through the Lower School, she’d give me advice As to like things to make sure that I would plan ahead for whether it was like our little great plays or things like that that the lower school would be doing. So it was really like she was kind of a good person to help me be aware of things to consider with my own

HARPER LARSEN: learning physics in the classroom is hard enough, but learning it on a screen during COVID 19 seemed even harder, although Miss Baker and Dr. Hovan figured out a way to make it work.

SCOT HOVAN: Yeah, it’s been a lot of good times just thinking about, you know, like seeing stuff through the pandemic together. You know, we taught in this room even when people were distance learning. And so we would kind of even be working together when we were socially distancing from one another. So it was really neat to be able to we would often just have, like, Zoom calls on Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings to do planning for the week and things like that. So yeah, sometimes just really comfortable with being able to work together and to just be able to connect with her. So really grateful for that opportunity.

HARPER LARSEN: Over the past 11 years, Ms. Baker and Dr. Hovan have built a healthy and unique friendship, whether they’re making new projects like graph matching or sound sculptures or even the mobile project ninth graders experience this year. Part of what makes this friendship so unique is that unlike students bonding on screen or in the classroom. Miss Baker and Dr. Hovan built a friendship while watching all of their students build friendships as well. See you next time on unexpected friendships. If you want to find more podcasts, head over to Rubicon line to find more like this. Also, if you like this podcast, tune in next time for our other episodes of unexpected friendships, we meet a senior who builds friendships through mutual friends and homes who understand how to maintain friendships, as well as a friendship that made the switch to a new school, and a pair who met online, but became close friends off the screen, too.

See you next time on Unexpected Friendships.