Celebrating Our People | 30 Years | David Harpin

When David Harpin reflects on reaching three decades at Hopkins, he feels, as he put it, “wistful.”

“I find myself thinking about the early years quite a bit—about the wonderful colleagues from that time, and missing them,” said Harpin. “People like Peter Wells [former School Psychologist], Bill Bakke ’60 HGS [former CFO], and Wendy Wells [former English teacher and Head Adviser], all those students and colleagues from long ago,” he continued.

While many know Harpin today as an English teacher, he has been involved in many facets of the School’s operation throughout his tenure. Harpin started his Hopkins career as a Latin teacher in 1996. In the mid-2000s, in addition to teaching Latin and serving as the Classics Department Chair, he served as the Director of Community Service, where he piloted the Senior Service week. What began as a series of Habitat for Humanity builds laid the foundation for the service program that is now central to the senior year experience.

His administrative leadership as Dean of Academics was equally transformative. Harpin was instrumental in launching the Penn Fellows program at Hopkins. The program not only benefited the student fellows in the program, but Harpin himself values how much he learned in the process: “Never having taken a pedagogy or education course,” Harpin explained, “I enjoyed learning classroom best practices from the experienced and talented professors at Penn. It was also great to see how the Penn Fellows challenged their colleagues at Hopkins to look at pedagogical problems in fresh ways.”

Harpin was also a pioneer of the Malone School’s Online Network (MSON), a consortium of schools across the United States offering online courses. He was the first Hopkins teacher to step into the realm of virtual instruction, teaching Greek to a remote cohort long before digital classrooms became commonplace.

Whether coaching cross-country and track in the ’90s or overseeing the complex logistics of domestic and global travel today, Harpin takes pride from these diverse contributions to the School’s mission and program.

“While I wouldn’t consider myself a ‘rock star’ in every job and endeavor, I always felt good about doing my part to help a good school to become even better, whether through a dynamic and rigorous Latin and Greek curriculum, a vibrant community service program, or a global learning program that can enrich classroom instruction,” Harpin said.

A key pivot in Harpin’s journey was his transition to the English Department. In 2016, Harpin was tapped to cover a section of English 7. He has remained in the department ever since, discovering that his deep roots in Latin and Greek were a throughline that enriched his teaching of English.

In Harpin’s classroom, when his students study Shakespeare, they do so with a teacher who can trace allusions back to classical or biblical sources. His Upper School elective, Our Mythological Heritage, allows him to guide juniors and seniors through Greek tragedies, The Aeneid (a favorite of his), and hefty selections of Milton’s Paradise Lost. For Harpin, these works are not just literature; they are “classical treasure troves.”

“My classical background has only helped my work in the English classroom,” Harpin explained. “It’s been very useful. Both in building vocabulary through Greek or Latin roots, but also in all of the mythological and literary bridges between works of literature.”

Even though he has three decades of experience at Hopkins, Harpin remains a student of his own profession. He speaks with pride about his development as a teacher of writing, a practical skill he honed during his years as an administrator, and improved by mentorship from English colleagues. He says it was a challenge and a joy to start teaching the Writing Semester course, a practicum in writing where students write across multiple expository forms. He views writing not just as a practical skill, but as an art form that requires pride and a keen eye for one’s audience.

“You need to acknowledge the value of good writing,” said Harpin, “and take some pride in your own writing, in your own discipline as a writer. And that’s what I’m trying to instill in my students, and it seems to be working.”

In his other role as Global Programs Coordinator, Harpin is actively exploring ways to leverage Hopkins’ partnerships with sister schools in China, France, and Italy. His vision is to move beyond the “pen pal” experience toward deep, project-based collaboration.

“The challenge right now is how can we leverage these partnerships in the classroom more, beyond Modern Language classes,” he said. “What if a History class had a project students could collaborate on with students in Avignon, perhaps to study World War II through the lens of their local family histories?”

He hopes to implement this new vision for global collaboration in the coming years. In the short term, he is currently supporting colleagues on two international trips for the Spring of 2026, when Hopkins will travel abroad to visit our sister schools in Changsha, China, and Avignon, France.

As David Harpin looks toward the remainder of his 30th year, the “wistfulness” he feels is balanced by the vibrant activity of his current roles. Beneath his own nostalgia lies a profound sense of pride in a career that has been remarkably fluid, moving through various departments and leadership roles while maintaining a singular, classical heartbeat. “After all these years, it’s still a pleasure to come to work every day and to work with amazing students and colleagues!”