Ms. Gina DiRenzi is an English 2 Honors and English Literature & Composition Honors teacher here at Prep!
This is her fifth year at Prep. She attended college at St. Peter’s in Jersey City for 3½ years before she finished at New Jersey City University. She is a mother to two boys and enjoys the beach. Ms. DiRenzi was kind enough to give The Boulevard Online some of her time to answer a few questions.
The Boulevard Online: Out of all the subjects, why did you choose to teach English/language arts?
Ms. DiRenzi: “Because I loved reading and I loved all my English classes and my English teachers when I was little. I have had really good English teachers from a young age.”
TBO: What is your favorite book? Your favorite poem? Why?
Ms. DiRenzi: “That’s hard for an English teacher. My favorite book is called ‘American Pastoral’ by Philip Roth. My favorite poet is Rachel McKibbins, but she has a lot of different poems that I like. She has a series ‘The first time The second time and the final time’ about domestic abuse. I really like those. Another one that she has is called ‘Letter from my head to my heart.’ So there are a few by Rachel McKibbins that I like.”
TBO: What is one lesson you hope students will take with them further into high school and college?
Ms. DiRenzi: “I just think it’s like a love of reading and how every single thing we read is a way of looking at the way that we all have a human connection, right? So I think it’s looking at different examples of humanity through various texts.”
TBO: If you could have dinner with anyone past, present, or future, who would it be? What would you ask them?
Ms. DiRenzi: “I’m always interested to meet, like with a writer like Margaret Atwood, who wrote ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ Because I’m always interested in how writers write dystopian novels or specific types of fiction. How they come up with their ideas, like the ideas we see in ‘The Giver.’ Things that could happen in humanity that could go awry. So how did she come up with the content for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale?’ It would be something that I would ask her and want to know how she developed the context in that novel.”
TBO: What is your favorite way to unwind after a long day?
Ms. DiRenzi: “I like to pick up books that I like to read or that I’m currently reading. So I give myself that little bit of not reading academic work of students or not reading the texts that I’m giving my students to make tests or quizzes for them. So I like to pick up books I’m currently reading. That’s like my little treat to myself.”
TBO: What is your favorite movie?
Ms. DiRenzi: “I’m not a movie person. I like old movies where it has an unhappy ending. So I like ‘Legends of the Fall’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ I like all those hit movies. I don’t necessarily have a favorite.”
TBO: If you could travel anywhere around the world, where would you go?
Ms. DiRenzi: “Italy. And I would never leave.”
TBO: What is your favorite meal?
Ms. DiRenzi: It would be some kind of seafood like lobster. I like anything like a boiled lobster. Something like that.”
TBO: What is something that no one knows about you?
Ms. DiRenzi: “I like a wide variety of music genres. So I don’t have one, like a particular music genre that I listen to. I listen to a wide variety of music.”
TBO: If you could have any superpower what would it be?
Ms. DiRenzi: “To bring world peace.”
