Beloved Brown employee Rachel Fontes is no stranger to working at an academic institution — she has spent the past four years building community in the School of Engineering cafe.
But for the first time, she is now in front of the classroom. This month, Fontes left Brown to begin her new job as a fifth grade teacher at a local elementary school.
Fontes said her decision to leave the SOE Cafe was bittersweet.
“I’ve really appreciated my time here,” Fontes said in a Tuesday interview at the SOE cafe — one that was interrupted three times by students and faculty excited to see her back in the building. “It really has shaped me into the person that I’m becoming, the educator that I’m becoming. I’m just forever grateful for it.”
Fontes and cafe staff members, Samantha Powers and Allen “DJ Lefty” Pires, “just seemed to really love each other’s energy all the time,” frequent patron Evy Hwangbo ’27 said.
“I would always get this energy boost when I saw (Fontes) in the morning,” she added. “When I moved off campus (during) junior year, I would just go to the engineering building to get a matcha or coffee from (Fontes) because, like, that’s my friend.”
Reminiscing on some of her memories at the cafe, Fontes recalled spilling a large bag of milk across the countertop and onto the floor through the building lobby, where a long line of students were waiting to order during a daytime rush.
“We were just laughing hysterically because we’re like, ‘This is a hot mess,’” Fontes said. “Our socks were filled with milk.”
In the midst of the chaotic scene, students still came up to order drinks. “I would love to give you your latte,” Fontes said she told them, but “my best advice is just to scoop it off the ground. I’ll give you a shot of espresso.”
“Throwing jokes around” and “being silly” was common for Fontes, who fondly recalled her experiences with her colleagues. From the get-go, she felt welcomed by and warm toward her co-workers, she said. During her first day on the job, in summer 2022, Powers approached Fontes and gave her “big hug,” Fontes said.
“We’re really like a family,” Fontes said. “If one person’s having a bad day, we’re all having a bad day because we love and care about each other that much.”
Pires, who has worked with Fontes for about the past two years, said he was “very proud of her for making that leap of faith” and trusting herself to start teaching. “It’s pretty much been her passion for a long time,” he added.
Fontes also has ties to Brown through her mother and stepfather, who worked in the facilities management department for decades. She called the department a “second family” to her.
When Fontes’s mother was hospitalized and later passed away four years ago, a student formed a GoFundMe page for her family, raising more than $4,000.
“In (one of) my most great times of loss — which was a really difficult time for me — I received love, compassion, care and kindness,” Fontes said. “There were so many names on that (GoFundMe) list that I didn’t even recognize.”
Over the years, Fontes formed bonds with numerous students and staff members in the building, including Indrek Külaots, a teaching professor of engineering and director of the department’s undergraduate program.
“(Fontes) did put her heart and soul into serving every cup of warm coffee … greeting each person with a beautiful, genuine smile,” Külaots wrote in an email to The Herald. “Her kindness, sincerity and heartfelt care for everyone she meets make her more than just someone who serves coffee — she makes people feel welcomed, valued and cared for.”
Hwangbo recalled chatting with Fontes in front of Barus and Holley during her breaks and asking for life advice, and Skyler Recel-Chang ’27 wrote in an email to The Herald that Fontes “knows when you need a laugh, a hug or both.”
Recel-Chang, who said she often comes to the SOE cafe before class, remembered a morning when she was stressing about an upcoming exam. “I wasn’t my usual cheerful self, but then (Fontes) came over to my table with a cookie and a hug. I knew everything would be okay,” Recel-Chang wrote in an email to The Herald.
“I think I can speak on behalf of any student who knows Rachel or has even exchanged a smile with her, and say that we are so grateful for the foundation she has been for our community,” she added.
Fontes started her job as a fifth grade history teacher at Achievement First Promesa Mayoral Academy Elementary School, a public charter school, on Nov. 4.
“I'm definitely gonna miss my little chit chats,” Fontes said. “There’s (only) so many things that I can speak about with a fifth grader, right?”
But she hopes to bring her memories from Brown into her elementary classroom. “I have lots of stories to tell them,” she said, referring to her new students.
After one of Fontes’s new students said he wanted to work for NASA, she told him, “There (are) a lot of students in my building that are getting internships with NASA as we speak right now.”
“If you do really well in your math class and science, maybe I could connect you with them,” she added.
James Libresco is a senior staff writer covering staff & student labor. He is a sophomore from Alexandria, Va. studying political science and contemplative studies. In his free time, he can be found playing basketball, meditating, or losing in Among Us.
