Ben Coblyn aims to pair accountability and care

Ben Coblyn, the newest Dean of Students at ARHS for grades 10-12, said his job is to “ensure students will have a safe, effective, and efficient learning environment.” He hopes to be an adult that students can feel comfortable around, and said he is excited to connect with the community through extracurriculars such as clubs and sports.

Coblyn graduated from ARHS in 2004, then attended Boston University and UMass Amherst, where he played Division I basketball and football. Coblyn graduated from UMass with a bachelor’s degree in history.

He taught U.S. History in Dorchester, Mass., along with physical education at the Amherst Regional Middle School. Coblyn credits his passion for education to one of his high school teachers: Janet Saulsberry. “She made a really huge difference in my life,” said Coblyn. “She helped me realize how big of an impact a teacher could have.”

He said he wasn’t the best student in high school and she was the one teacher he liked. She told him, “You can be part of the problem or part of the solution.” He decided he wanted to be “part of the solution” and followed her urging to become a teacher himself.

Now, his mission is to connect with students just like she did, to be “the teacher the kids will talk to if they don’t like anyone else.”

Coblyn loves the vibe of the high school, describing it as having a great “vibration to it.” He enjoys how there’s “always something going on in the classrooms” and that there are so many extracurriculars students can participate in.

Coblyn has even agreed to be the new advisor of the Debate Club and is excited to aid sports programs by “[giving] back to an athletics department that [he] grew up [in].”

With Coblyn comes a value system that he will apply to his job as a dean. Coblyn is biracial and Jewish, and comes from “plenty of family history where generations before [him] were treated unfairly because of who they [were].” He believes that no one should be unkind based on another person’s identity. “One of my biggest pet peeves is people who aren’t tolerant,” he said.

Coblyn was raised around educators, as his dad was a UMass professor for 40 years. Coblyn recalled “roaming the hallways at UMass” and the school setting “feeling natural” to him. His passion for education and the Amherst community both allow him to fully enjoy his profession.

“I love my job,” said Coblyn. “I don’t feel like I have a job [because] I enjoy what I do.”