2021 | Massachusetts | BOYS

The Govenor’s Academy | Govs | BOYS

Aaron Mulligan

Aaron came to The Governor’s Academy at the start of his sophomore year. He lived in my dorm and I was selected to be his advisor, a normal practice to pair students in the dorm with an adult they might have something in common with. We have been together now for almost three years despite the fact that I no longer live in the dorm, and that he was to move on to be a proctor in a dorm filled with ninth graders. When Covid came along in the spring of 2020, some of that changed. He remained at home as a day student so that he could continue playing hockey off campus, waiting for his chance to get back on campus once the season was over. The one thing that did not change was my early observation that he would be a school leader before he left the school in 2021.

Aaron is the son of Irish immigrants who settled in the Boston area. His blue collar beginnings instilled in him work ethic, commitment, honesty and an innate sense of goodness that “Old Schoolâ€_x009d_ teachers love to see. Aaron was an easy friend to make and was well liked by peers, teammates and the faculty. His academic work over the years has carried him to Honors and AP level courses during his senior year and a semester ending GPA just over 4.0. Aaron was selected to be a hockey team captain, and along with his proctorship, there is little doubt that many saw in him the leadership potential I saw growing in him from his arrival three years ago.

Aaron convinced the rink manager to allow him to set up an old net behind the rink during his sophomore year. He helped surround the net with a frame and netting to keep pucks from flying off into the woods to finish off his homemade shooting range. There wasn’t a day that Aaron did not spend some of his free time shooting pucks there during his first year. He knew he had to do something to improve his chances to make the team, as he was also a blue collar player who spent most of that year moving back and forth between the third and fourth line. I have spent a good deal of my 42 years of teaching around the rink, and there are few kids during that time that I have seen who have worked harder than Aaron. He knows his strengths and weaknesses as a player, and is one of those guys you can’t keep off the ice.

It has been great to see Aaron grow over the last three years and I am not surprised to see the progress he has made as a player, a scholar and as a person during his time here in Byfield. Kids like Aaron come along seldomly and you often find yourself rooting for them, because you know what they represent and hopefully what they will become as adults and people.

Respectfully,

Leonard Ceglarski, Jr
Advisor