After joining Menlo’s faculty last year, science teacher Zachary Eagleton will be taking a break from teaching for a couple of years to pursue a passion project. 

For the past couple of years, Eagleton has been designing a research project to genetically engineer pain-resistant mice in hopes of finding an ethical solution to farm-based animal slaughter. As of January, he decided to pursue his research fulltime and made arrangements with his partner on this project to acquire a lab license. 

Before his time at Menlo, Eagleton taught for six years at Sanger High School in Fresno, Calif. Beyond his time in the classroom teaching Conceptual Physics, Chemistry (H) and Biotechnology (H), Eagleton has made an effort to connect with students. 

“My favorite thing about Mr. Eagleton is his in-class demos. I think he really is able to spark a genuine interest in chemistry and science in all his students. […] I’m really sad he won’t be here next year,” sophomore Kaitlyn Mi said. 

Sophomores Leila Kao, Emily Dong and Alex Fair feel similarly about Eagleton’s departure. As a token of their appreciation, they chose to give him a flag of his face pasted over a periodic table. Now, the flag resides in his office, though the photo can still be seen on his Instagram, @eagleton_stem, where he posts demonstrations from his classes and updates for his former students.

Overall, Eagleton has had a positive experience working at Menlo. “It’s a really good school. […] There are a lot of good kids that are really interesting and have a lot of good interests. The staff is good. The programming is good on all the electives we offer,” Eagleton said.

Likely, Eagleton will not be gone for too long. “I don’t think [my project] will last forever, maybe like a year or two. When it’s done, I would very much like to come back to Menlo, and the school’s already indicated that they would also like that,” Eagleton said.