Her hair is thrown up into a messy ponytail. She dresses in a lot of BHS merch. She is always carrying at least one walkie-talkie, her home phone, and what is playfully referred to as the “bat phone” – the phone that everyone calls when there is a problem. Carrie Tewksbury, known to nearly everyone as “Tewks,” is the person you reach out to when you need help.
Once a BHS cheerleader herself, she is now Burlington High School’s Student Support Specialist. But she’s more than that; she’s a fierce advocate for students, she’s the one to go to when you need a shoulder to cry on, she’s an uplifting colleague, and sometimes she’s even the one inside the Seahorse costume – she’s the unofficial head cheerleader for BHS.
“I think that when I first met her, I just immediately wanted to be her friend,” Neave Glennon ‘26 said.
Ruby Fox ‘26 agreed.
“She has a very warm presence and it invites you in” – Ruby Fox ’26
“She develops relationships with students that are just so close and so sacred, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced with a faculty member,” Fox said.
Fox said she has attended at least six different schools (four in Vermont), and Tewksbury is “just really rare, especially in the public education system.” Fox said she was uncertain about staying at BHS, especially because it was in a Macy’s, but now she thinks BHS is “really unique” and that Tewksbury is the “heart” of the school.
“[Tewksbury is] the only employee that I’ve ever met who’s really, like, immediately there for the student,” Fox said. “I think that’s just really incredible and inspiring.”
Student Success Coach Molly Doran has been working with Tewksbury for several years. Doran says Tewks works really hard to create a welcoming environment where students feel comfortable.
“She’s just really happy to see students,” Doran said. “And that can make such a difference when, like every day, you walk in and there’s someone excited to see you.”
Students say you will rarely find Tewksbury in her office doing paperwork because she’s out in the building, walking up and down the escalators with her walkie-talkie – on the case.
“She’s right on the job and she gets it done,” Glennon said. “Like a fight breaks out, or a student’s having a mental health problem, and the first person who will help that student is most likely going to be Tewks.”
Glennon said that she is most impressed by the fact that she was “just so ride or die for those that are in her life,” but Glennon also says that Tewksbury does not shy away from telling students hard truths.
Glennon said her brother was “crazy” about getting his permit and was skipping class and making others skip class to help him study for his test.
“Tewksburry told her brother to tone it down a little bit,” Glennon said. “Maybe let’s get back to class, or let these people get back to class. And, you know, stop skipping study hall for this because it’s kinda ridiculous.”
One of the questions at 9th grade orientation was “Which staff member is not allowed to work in the library”? The answer? Tewksbury. Why? Because she’s loud.
“So if you’re ever looking for me around the building,” Tewksbury said. “You’d probably hear my voice.”
Tewksbury said that loudness probably came from cheerleading in high school, along with a lot of theater. She graduated from Burlington High School in 1992 and is a self-proclaimed “die-hard Seahorse”. A bit of a self-proclaimed “tomboy,” Tewksbury played softball and volleyball in high school, but says she also loved cheerleading.
“I do miss being out there (cheerleading),” Tewksbury said. “I really did enjoy that and I got most of my school spirit my Senior year”.
Her school spirit is still clearly evident. During the pandemic, Tewksbury was the one who volunteered to be in the ACE Seahorse costume making videos that were trying to get people excited about coming back to school. There are still videos on Instagram showing her as a giant seahorse “yelling” about classroom rules or even singing the school song. Tewksbury said it was a shame that most people don’t know the BHS fight song and immediately gave us a full rendition right there on the spot.
Tewksbury is not shy. She is an extrovert that loves theater. She was cast as one of the orphans in a Flynn Theater production of “Oliver” when she was in elementary school, played Anne Frank in “The Diary of Anne Frank” in high school, and in college she played Abby in “Arsenic and Old Lace”.
“I loved it and loved being on stage and went really far with it”, Tewksbury said. “I loved to become that character and to grab people’s attention in the audience and to see a different side of me.”
After college, Tewksbury tried out a lot of different jobs before coming to BHS. After being waitlisted for Vermont Law School, she realized she didn’t really want to be a lawyer, but she knew she wanted to do something in the legal system.
With a master‘s degree in forensic psychology, Tewksbury worked in courtrooms, did group therapy with mostly men at probation and parole, and did research by going to all of the prisons in Vermont to see what was and wasn’t working with rehabilitation and education.
“What I realized is, most of the time, there’s always a reason for it,” Tewksbury said. “And so that’s one of the interesting things to me and always has been from childhood to be honest: ‘Why? Why? Why did this person do it? Whether it was hurtful or whether it was an educational experience or not, why are we doing what we’re doing? And then how can we support it?”
Doran thinks Tewk’s prior job experience is “obvious” in how she helps students at BHS.
“I think she’s more aware of different approaches on how to deal with behaviors because of her experience in corrections [and with] working with adult males in prison,” Doran said.
Fox sees this too.
“BHS is a really good example of a school that’s a melting pot you know, like nobody’s the same,” Fox said. “And so from her past jobs and her past studies, like she’s been able to adapt to those environments that have different backgrounds.”
Glennon agrees.
“I think that her lived experience, as well as being in both a part of the BHS student body and also employee body, really provides her the perspective that can really help students,” Glennon said.
Fox believes that no matter the situation, Tewksbury probably had firsthand experience with it.
“You just know that she has your back. She’s not scared of what you’re going through, and she’s not gonna back down from it,” Fox said.
Along with past career experiences, Tewksbury’s deep ties to the Burlington community is part of what makes her unique. Doran said that Tewksbury “just knows everybody.”
“Sometimes when a parent will come in, she’ll be like, ‘Oh, we went to high school together,’ and tell like a random story that isn’t really relevant,” Doran said.
Doran added that students of all different personalities and backgrounds continue to reach out to Tewksbury after they have graduated.
“They’re always really excited to see her, they’ll come back to school and give her a big hug,” Doran said. “It’s all in the relationships, in the ways that students report back that she really made a difference for them when they didn’t have as many people or needed somebody to talk to.”
Still, Doran says, “it’s hard to bring that energy every day,” so Doran tries to take on more of their shared tasks on the rare occasions Tewksbury is having a bad day.
“I sometimes get tired and discouraged,” Tewksbury said. “But I know I make a difference that’s kept me here. I love the adults and the people that I work with. I never go through a day here at BHS without laughing at some point. And so it’s that, it’s that I don’t mind coming in here. I like the challenge, and I like working with all of you guys.”
And Tewksbury doesn’t plan on giving up her pom poms anytime soon. She said she is excited to be moving into a new school building next year.
“I think a lot of what I wish for and want to create can be created when we get over to the new school because it’ll have different vibes and a different space,” Tewksbury said. “[But,] I can’t wait for us to be cohesive. It’s amazing. I went over there [to the new BHS building] the other day and to have an actual theater with a stage, to have this amazing gymnasium, to have pep rallies again, to just be all in one campus and be across from the field is amazing.”
