Mr. Samuel Colston

Mr. Colston was born in New Jersey and raised in a suburb outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he grew up reading and playing the trumpet in his high school marching band before attending college for both his bachelor's and master's degrees at Duquesne University.

As the oldest of three siblings, Mr. Colston was born a perfectionist.  His seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Graham, fostered a love of writing in him, and he was fortunate to have other English teachers and professors who continued to foster that love and passion for writing and reading.  If it weren't for them, Mr. Colston might not be doing what he does today.  His favorite books include Shalimar the Clown (Salman Rushdie), The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen), Magpie Murders (Anthony Horowitz), and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Anthony Marra), though his childhood favorite of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (and his teacher favorite Animal Farm) can't be left off the list.  He is always happy with a good mystery novel!

He has been teaching full-time at the high school level since 2011 and has been a Phoenix here at Rock Ridge High School since 2015.  He spent his first four years working at Dominion High School as an English teacher and special educator where, in 2014, he traveled to Singapore with students to attend the Asia-Pacific Young Leaders Summit.  He is a former co-sponsor of the Rock Ridge Debate Team with Mr. Briscoe and Ms. Srinivasan.  Currently, he sponsors the Rock Ridge Book Club and has started the Birding Club at Rock Ridge.  (Interested birders, please come see Mr. Colston--he got into birding over the pandemic.)

He most enjoyed taking classes in Medieval English literature in college, especially with his favorite professor, Dr. Brannen.  It was through a discussion on the Medieval literature classes they'd both taken at their respective colleges that both he and his wife first realized they were clearly meant for one another.  They had a pandemic wedding in May of 2020 with 8 people in attendance and are looking forward to someday actually getting to go to Scotland for their honeymoon, now most likely joined by their newborn son.

Please feel free to contact Mr. Colston with any questions or concerns!