Math teacher Charles Rooney received the Charles Dana Meserve award, Monday Oct. 27.

According to Principal Henry Turner, the Meserve award honors both a faculty member and a student. A graduating senior is first selected to receive the honor during graduation, and that student then nominates a teacher to be awarded for their exemplary work in the classroom and personal impact on the student.

Rooney was nominated by Betina Kreiman ‘24, one of two student recipients of the Meserve award from the Class of 2024, for the positive influence he had on her and her fellow students in encouraging them to challenge themselves. 

Turner added that student recipients “nominate North teachers who inspired them,” following their first year of college, and then a committee of prior winners meets to choose a staff recipient from the nominees. 

Kreiman said that Rooney was one of the most patient teachers that she had ever had.

“I had a great relationship with him. I thought he was really trusting and I felt like I could share what I needed with him,” she said. 

Kreiman added that she really liked ”how calm and patient and understanding he was of everyone’s background knowledge in math, whether that was zero or incredibly advanced.”

Rooney taught Kreiman in both Math 2 and computer science. 

“She already knew the whole computer science curriculum so we set up something so that she could work on something totally different from what everyone else was working on,” Rooney said. 

As an alternative to the regular curriculum, Rooney worked with Kreiman on a web application.

Kreiman noted that both her brother and her “thought really highly of Mr. Rooney because he pushed us past what we thought we could do.”

According to Rooney, he provided her with “challenging material” and “pushed her as a math student.” 

Rooney has been teaching for 22 years and taught in Newton for 20 years. His own background as an English major at Princeton University and current occupation as a math teacher inspired Kreiman.

“I think that showed me that I should be able to step outside my comfort zone and try other things,” said Kreiman.

Kreiman now majors in computer science and physics at Harvard University, but enjoys taking journalism classes and exploring other subjects and activities as well. 

“I owe that to him, for sure,” she said.

Current students of Rooney’s share Kreiman’s sentiments. 

“Whatever level of math you want to pursue, whatever amount of work you want to put into the material, he was willing to accept that amount of work,” said junior Caleb McPherson, who was Rooney’s student in honors Math 2. 

According to McPherson, Rooney asks his students what they want to take away from his course instead of simply expecting them to listen to his lessons.