The Titans wholeheartedly welcome our new principal, Dr. Benjamin Wolf. Dr. Wolf comes to SMHS with a plethora of experience in teaching and administration and is excited to embrace our school and what it means to be a Titan.
Already, Wolf stated how he has made great memories with the wonderful faculty and students, as well as going to exciting events such as the first football game of the year. He described how one of the unique things he experienced so far at San Marino was how students would be in class on time and not take forever to get to class, so much so that he actually took a picture of the empty Quad once class commenced.
“It’s awesome that students have fun and act like teenagers outside of class, but when it’s time for class, they get serious and focused, which is really cool,” Wolf said.
He further noted that while he was walking around different classrooms, he was immensely impressed with the high-level discussions that were taking place, such as about the Federalist Papers in AP Lang.
Now aside from his first thoughts about San Marino, Dr. Wolf detailed to the Titan Shield his teaching and administrative career. Prior to coming to San Marino, he was the principal at Glendale High School for the past 7 years. Before that, he was principal of the Orange County High School of the Arts, Buena Park High School, Santiago High School, assistant principal at Irvine High School, English and Social Studies teacher at Santa Fe High School, and assistant superintendent of the Centinela Valley school district. Obviously, Dr. Wolf comes with plenty of experience, yet the Titan Shield asked what made San Marino different.
“The community is really unique. It’s the smallest I’ve been in, and that allows me to better connect with teachers and students. Moreover, San Marino itself is an extremely tight-knit community, where it is cool to see how much the parents are involved,” Wolf said.
Dr. Wolf got his Bachelor’s in Political Science from UC Irvine, the city where he grew up, as well as a Master’s in Public and Business Administration from UCI too. He got his administrative credential from Chapman University, and doctoral degree in education in 2006 from USC. At first, Wolf wanted to use his initial education to go into government, and did so when working with city management for the first couple years of his career. Yet, after a year, he found it boring and started to question to himself: “What would I really like to do?” After his introspection, he realized he really wanted to teach government and politics, catapulting him into his long and experienced teaching career.
After his doctoral degree at USC, Wolf became a huge USC football fan, which he likes to spend his free time watching. In fact, he will be going to USC v. Notre Dame at Notre Dame this season. Beside college football, Wolf cheers on the Miami Dolphins, his parents’ hometown team. So, as you can tell, if you like football, Dr. Wolf is the guy to talk to. He also loves going out with friends and family to different restaurants and describes himself as quite a foodie. Along with that, Wolf loves to travel, with Mexico as a frequent destination, as well as exploring different States across the US with his wife.
Titan Shield ended our interview with Dr. Wolf with one question – if there is anything you would like the San Marino community to know about Dr. Wolf, what would it be?
“This is my 18th year being a high school principal, and nobody does something for 18 years if they don’t love it. I like every component – from the football games to the concerts – that goes into high school and making sure students find something that they are genuinely interested in.”
