By Patrick Mahanes ‘23

Mr. Molenda is currently teaching his 40th year at Brother Rice. He became interested in teaching because he wanted to coach. He coached track for 32 years and cross country for 35 years at Brother Rice.

It was very clear that Mr. Molenda loved coaching track and field and cross country during the interview.Mr. Molenda’s favorite memories at Brother Rice were, “Going down state, winning the Catholic League, winning the first regional, and winning the second regional.”

Mr. Molenda began teaching at Brother Rice because it was the only job he could get back in 1983.  He started off teaching biology classes and part-time chemistry classes. Chemistry was an elective at that time, but eventually became a required class about 10 years later.

Mr. Molenda’s lectures were informative, but not boring because he is very funny. He makes a period and a half class interesting. The vast majority of his students say they enjoyed his class.

Senior Brendan Malloy said, ¨I was never a fan of science class, but Mr. Molenda at least made Chemistry fun and interactive with the variety of labs we conducted. He was also very funny; so, I enjoyed going to his class every day.¨

Senior John Fitzpatrick said, ¨I think Mr. Molenda is a great guy who is not at all afraid to speak his mind.¨

Senior Will Owens said, “Mr. Molenda is a great teacher. He explains material well and makes hard concepts easier to understand.¨