In many ways, Tim Seston can claim to have been on campus longer than most current faculty and staff. “I remember this building when it was the Head of School’s house,” he muses when we connect in East Hall, harking back to the era when Tim first taught on campus from 2000 to 2005. Although Tim’s path meandered over the ensuing two decades - raising his children, founding a children’s music company, coaching and teaching at other local independent schools -  it feels almost inevitable that he came full circle back to the beginning.

Beginnings are exactly the catalyst that drew Tim back: it was the unique opportunity to be part of the Middle School from Day One that sparked his interest, and he now serves as the math and science teacher for 7th and 8th graders. 

“I love beginnings,” Tim says, and relished the idea of being able to build the culture of the Middle School from the ground up. “So much of middle school is getting to know the kids, and seeing a community grow and develop. There’s so much newness.” He also loves that current Middle Schoolers can be a part of the CH-CH campus for as long as six years, carrying that new culture forward into the rest of the community. Already, Tim is helping to foster threads with the Upper School, whether through a collaborative project between his 7th graders and Applied Mathematics & Engineering or in upcoming plans to connect 8th graders with the Psychology of the Adolescent Class. 

When Tim is not teaching chemistry in the classroom, you’ll find him building it on the soccer field, where he seems to embody the School’s current mission to lead with empathy. 

“Culturally, as a team we’ve been going through the idea of what it means to be a good soccer player.” ‘Good’ for Coach Tim doesn’t necessarily mean winning, but staying positive, exhibiting good sportsmanship, and seeing the humanity of the opposing team. “If you ask one of my players what I care most about, it’s the internal chemistry.”

It no doubt helps his players to embrace the differences of their opponents when they play on a team representing 12 different countries (Note: 2024 Varsity Boys Soccer includes students from: Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Nigeria, Singapore, Spain, Vietnam, Uganda, and the United States).

Tim loves that this diversity extends to the entire student body, not just his team, where the School puts into practice what it preaches (Note: In 2024-2025, CH-CH has students from 23 countries), fostering exactly those connections across cultures that Tim tries to emphasize in his curriculum. “It’s been really neat to come back and be part of that,” he says.

As his first wave of Middle Schoolers graduates up to 9th grade and embarks upon their first fall in the Upper School, it’s easy to see the lessons they’ve learned under Tim’s tutelage. They’re finding their voices, adding them into the larger community, and embarking on the next stage of learning.

And this is just the beginning.