A new school year isn’t just exciting for students. New faculty members like Digital Arts teacher Rita Kapadia are excited to be here and meet new people. Kapadia is a new teacher here at WA, and with a wide range of experiences she brings in an arsenal of expertise to the classroom.

Q: I see that you specialize fine arts here at WA. What classes do you teach?

A:  I don’t teach Fine Arts; it is actually Digital Arts. In general, I teach graphic design.  There are image-editing classes, I do Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop right now. Then, I also teach Java, (a programming language) and “C++”  (another programming software).

Q: How long have you been a teacher here at WA?

A: I’m actually a long term substitute here at Westford Academy. I substitute for teachers out on maternity leave and such. I have been coming here the last three years, on and off. I live in Carlisle, so I also go to Carlisle schools to substitute.

Q: So what do you think of WA so far?

A: I like teaching here. I can have my own career here, and the environment is very conducive to making good relationships.  This place has a good faculty [and] a lot of good teachers, which gives me nice colleagues to work with. Everybody here is very helpful and (I give) my sincere thanks to those I have met here at Westford Academy. The students are eager learners and I see them succeeding after graduation. I also love the technology labs that are here. They are fantastic computers, all up to date (with respect to software) and well maintained for Java, Visual Basic, and other learning languages.

Q: Is there anything you find confusing about working here in WA?

A: The only thing I find to be confusing is the rotation schedule, but I talked to the other teachers, and like I said, everyone is so helpful.

Q: Do you have any advice for the students here at Westford Academy?

A: I think that you — students — should take advantage of this great environment and try to get an internship in whatever it is that you are interested in. I’ll tell you kids, people are looking for students like you who have good work ethic, enthusiasm, and interest, so develop those skills and get an internship. I can’t emphasize it enough. Even when you go to college, please do that.

Q: What are some of your interests outside of the workplace?

A: My hobby is computers, even when I’m not working. So after getting educated here, one of my first hobby projects was to make a website. Since I’m a self learner, I learned how to make a website. Then I said, ‘you know, why don’t I put up my cooking recipes out there?’. I put out about three hundred of them. Then, after a few years someone told me ‘I saw you have all these recipes online, so then why don’t you make a cookbook?’ So I started doing cookbooks, and  now I’m a cookbook author on the side. I have even donated one of my cook books to the library here at WA, just last week. It’s titled, ‘Parsi Cuisine: Mnna of the 21st Century’. It’s almost like an encyclopedia; it’s very big. My goal in donating a cookbook was to bring in the multi-cultural exposure more to the school. I love what I do, I cook for my family and teach others in my free time. Since I’m good at website coding and programming I like to blend it in and do something productive.

Q: Can you tell me more about your culture and your cuisine?

A: This is a unique culture I come from, as we are a minority in India. So [they are] Indian foods, fusioned with our parsi culture.  I visited Kerala once; it’s known as ‘God’s own country’. It’s fascinating, the beauty of the tea gardens and our way of making tea. I ended up writing a book about it actually, called ‘The Teas of India’.

Q: Tell me about you educational background? Were you always interested in computers ?

A: I studied in India. I studied economics, so I have a Bachelors’ (Bachelors’ of Commerce or B-Com). After I graduated, it was then that I became interested in computers. My husband actually put a book in my hands and said, ‘Look, I work in digital equipment (it was a old time company [that] got bought over by Hewlett Packard), and before you come to the U.S., why don’t you go take a Fortran (coding and programming) course?’  

So, I went and did that. I came here and I went to Umass Lowell and I did some master’s level courses out there. Next, I went to Northeastern, where I did another master’s in computers. By that time I was hooked. I couldn’t stay away. Finally, I ended up working for IBM in Lexington. I enjoyed that very much. I was a QA engineer who would test the rational software before we put it out to the customers, so that they don’t see the defects.

It was an ironic tragedy, how I lost my job. I got outsourced by my own country.  Long-term, I’m looking for a job, and the job market is tough ; there is a lot of competition from outside countries but, I think we’ll come through. Things are looking up.